Author: EditorMC

I am a former journalist by trade, turned labour and family historian with a special interest in Chartism. I launched the Chartist Ancestors website since 2003, and am currently a member of the Society for the Study of Labour History executive committee, managing its website and social media in my free time.
Events

Working-Class Anti-Imperialism, the Global Left and Beyond

European Labour History Network (ELHN) conference University of Uppsala, 11-13 June 2024. Labour & Empire Working Group – Call for Papers. In the wake of the one-day conference “Working-Class Anti-Imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study” held at the University of Bristol on 30 June 2023, the Labour & Empire Working Group is eager to further explore the rich and complex questions debated … Continue reading Working-Class Anti-Imperialism, the Global Left and Beyond

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Commentary, Labour history news

Chartism, the great strike of 1842 and the possibilities of drama

Dramatists have been slow to pick up on the events at the heart of the great strike of 1842 and its complex relationship with Chartism. Michael Crowley, the author of Waiting for Wesley, explains how he went about bringing the story to life on stage Waiting for Wesley is being staged at Calderdale Industrial Museum on Sunday 6 August at 3pm Tickets are available via … Continue reading Chartism, the great strike of 1842 and the possibilities of drama

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Events, Grants, SSLH news

Report: Working-class Anti-imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study

The Labour and Empire Working Group has held conferences and other events for nearly ten years as part of the European Labour History Network (ELHN). In 2023, the Group held a one-day conference titled ‘Working-class Anti-imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study’ at the University of Bristol, which we were able to attend thanks to travel bursaries made possible by the Society for … Continue reading Report: Working-class Anti-imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Gregory Billam (Edge Hill University) on the CPGB, the Historians’ Group and the CPA between 1946-1956

My thesis focuses on the Communist Party of Great Britain’s British Road to Socialism (1951) within a wider international context of ‘national roads to socialism’, in which communist parties were told to adapt to ‘national’ circumstances. My research examines the British party’s ‘road to socialism’ at the British Empire’s centre, and that of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) at its periphery in the early … Continue reading Gregory Billam (Edge Hill University) on the CPGB, the Historians’ Group and the CPA between 1946-1956

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Labour History Review

Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), issue 2

Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), Issue 2 has now been published. This issue takes us from research on the processions that took place in Scotland during the agitation for Chartism and each of the Reform Acts of the nineteenth century, and of the flags, uniforms, costumes and models that accompanied them, to a study of merchant sailors as a subsection of the working class … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), issue 2

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Labour History Review

Material Cultures of Class in Scottish Radical Processions, 1832–1884

Author: Sonny AngusThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (2), 95-123. Read more. During the agitations around Chartism and each of the nineteenth century Reform Acts, radicals in Scotland turned out onto the streets in formal processions. They did so with a variety of vibrant materials, including flags, uniforms, costumes, and models. This article examines the purposes of, … Continue reading Material Cultures of Class in Scottish Radical Processions, 1832–1884

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Labour History Review

Bristol Sailors in the Nineteenth Century: A Breed Apart?

Author: Joe DaveyThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (2), 125-158. Read more. There is a stereotypical perception of the sailor as being a drunken, promiscuous, violent nuisance on the streets of a port town. In offering a partial corrective to this, this article portrays sailors in ways not normally associated with the stereotypical image and identity politics … Continue reading Bristol Sailors in the Nineteenth Century: A Breed Apart?

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Labour History Review

A Scholarly Life: Richard Croucher (1949-2022)

Richard Croucher, who died aged seventy-three on 16 December 2022, was a versatile scholar and talented labour historian who became well known as a teacher and researcher of employment relations, international trade unionism, and management studies. He played a prominent part in the field of labour history from the mid-1970s into the 1990s. His books Engineers at War and We Refuse to Starve in Silence constituted a significant contribution … Continue reading A Scholarly Life: Richard Croucher (1949-2022)

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), Issue 2

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (2), 185-198. Read more. Joe Stanley reviews Peter Hounsell, Bricks of Victorian London: A Social and Economic History, Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2022, pp. xiv + 283 + 15 plates, p/b, £18.99, ISBN 978 19122 60577 Quentin Outram reviews M.M. Borodin (trans. and ed. Pete Dickenson), The Great Betrayal: Black Friday and the 1921 Miners’ Lockout, London: … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), Issue 2

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Obituaries

Willie Thompson (1939-2023)

The death of Willie Thompson will be mourned across the labour history community. He was a visible presence for some sixty years. Although born in Glasgow, he was at heart a Shetlander. A man of the Iles who nevertheless admitted to having a love-hate relationship with them. But he never left them behind, always keeping in touch wherever he was through reading the island’s press. … Continue reading Willie Thompson (1939-2023)

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