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.
Commentary, Labour history news

Ticket to Ryde: how Labour’s leaders took a weekend break to write a manifesto

By the spring of 1949, the post-war Labour government had already delivered great swathes of the manifesto on which it had been elected less that four years earlier. The Bank of England had been in public ownership since 1946; the railways, coal industry and road freight had all been nationalized; and the National Health Service was up and running. All of which raised the question … Continue reading Ticket to Ryde: how Labour’s leaders took a weekend break to write a manifesto

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Events, Labour history news

Celebrating 50 years of the Modern Records Centre

The Modern Records Centre (MRC) at the University of Warwick celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. Founded in 1973, the MRC boasts more than 1,500 collections specialising in political, economic, and social history – in particular industrial relations and industrial politics, including the archive collections of numerous trade unions. To celebrate this milestone, the MRC is hosting a number of events in the coming months: The … Continue reading Celebrating 50 years of the Modern Records Centre

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Events, Grants

How Oldham found the funny thanks to Sam Fitton

Funding from the Society for the Study of Labour History helped to enable Gallery Oldham to take working-class history and Lancashire dialect to new audiences, as Karen Heatley explains. This year marks the centenary of Sam Fitton’s death. Fitton was fun-loving and multi-talented, his career started in the local textile mills but he went on to make a living as a skilled illustrator, poet, dialect … Continue reading How Oldham found the funny thanks to Sam Fitton

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Left-wing, woman, aristocrat: in search of Elinor Bethell (1869-1943)

Dr Quentin Gasteuil explains how he tracked down Elinor Bethell, a little known British woman who played a leading role in the Labour Party in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, with help from an SSLH bursary. I came across the widely unknown character of Elinor Frances Bethell during my PhD research. When I first made archival contact with her, she was a British woman … Continue reading Left-wing, woman, aristocrat: in search of Elinor Bethell (1869-1943)

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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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