Fighting Deindustrialisation: Scottish Women’s Factory Occupations, 1981-1982

The fight led by women workers against factory closures in early 1980s Scotland has been largely ignored in both popular and academic history, argues Andy Clark. His new book aims to bring their story in from the margins and restore the gender balance in accounts of the fight against deindustrialisation. Popular accounts of industrial closure and working-class resistance in the 1980s overwhelmingly focus on the … Continue reading Fighting Deindustrialisation: Scottish Women’s Factory Occupations, 1981-1982

EditorMCSeptember 15, 2022

Obituaries

Stephen Frederick Roberts (1958-2022)

Stephen Roberts, who has died aged 64, was a political, social and cultural historian of Victorian Britain whose focus over more than four decades was on Chartism and the city of Birmingham, two topics on which he was both expert and passionate. Stephen was born in Sutton Coldfield, and his commitment to and fascination with his home town was life long. He first encountered Chartism … Continue reading Stephen Frederick Roberts (1958-2022)

EditorMCSeptember 14, 2022September 14, 2022

Labour History Review, SSLH news

LHR postgraduate essay prize 2023

Postgraduates are encouraged to submit articles for consideration for the 2023 essay prize to the editors of Labour History Review. This annual prize awards £500 for the best essay, which will be published in the LHR. The essay prize is open to anyone currently registered for a higher research degree, in Britain or abroad, or to anyone who completed such a degree no earlier than February 2020. … Continue reading LHR postgraduate essay prize 2023

EditorMCSeptember 13, 2022

Labour history news

From New Dawn to Labour Prophet: taking union journals to a wider audience

Since shifting its approach on digitisation to make as many union journals as possible available online, the Modern Records Centre has managed to scan a vast quantity of material and make it available free of charge to researchers, as Liz Wood explains. After two years of steady scanning, the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick has hit the milestone of 100,000 pages of … Continue reading From New Dawn to Labour Prophet: taking union journals to a wider audience

EditorMCSeptember 12, 2022

Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jamie Ferris (Northumbria) on British reactions to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

National responses to an invasion are often thought about in simplified terms, seeing it as an outrage. This was even more true of invasions during the Cold War. Britain’s response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is coloured by this Cold War lens, with anti-communist figures such as Margaret Thatcher condemning the war and following the USA in taking action against the USSR. My … Continue reading Jamie Ferris (Northumbria) on British reactions to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

EditorMCSeptember 5, 2022September 5, 2022

Books etc

Bread not profits: a story of celebration and regret

Bread Not Profits: Provincial Working-Class Politics During the Irish RevolutionFrancis Devine & Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh (eds), Dublin: Umiskin Press, May 2022, h/b €48.50, pb €40.00 (UK including postage) The latest collection from the estimable Umiskin [labour history] Press, of Dublin, is notable for carrying the story of Irish working class mobilisation beyond the metropolitan centres and into the regions of Ireland during the revolutionary period … Continue reading Bread not profits: a story of celebration and regret

EditorMCSeptember 1, 2022September 1, 2022

Events, Labour history news

‘They came for bread not bayonets’: Halifax marks the Great Strike of 1842

One hundred and eighty years ago the people of Halifax marched to demand bread and the ballot. Now thanks to Calderdale Trades Council and its supporters, their struggle has been marked with a series of events and in more permanent ways, as Dan Whittall explains. At least 150 people gathered in Halifax on Saturday 13 August to take part in a series of commemorative events … Continue reading ‘They came for bread not bayonets’: Halifax marks the Great Strike of 1842

EditorMCAugust 14, 2022November 26, 2022

Commentary

Partners in crime: labour historians in the Golden Age of detective fiction

Typically set in a sprawling country house and populated by a cast drawn from the landed gentry and the well-to-do, ‘Golden Age’ detective fiction is not the most obvious genre in which to find two of the country’s leading socialist intellectuals. This was a world in which money, privilege and titles were taken for granted, servants were ever-present but hardly central to the plot, and … Continue reading Partners in crime: labour historians in the Golden Age of detective fiction

EditorMCAugust 5, 2022

Labour History Review, SSLH news

Society names LHR essay prize winner for 2022

The Society for the Study of Labour History is pleased to announce a winner for the 2022 Labour History Review postgraduate essay competition. The competition awards an annual prize of £500 for the best essay, which will also be published in Labour History Review. This year’s award goes to Gregory Billam for his essay entitled ’Breakdown in the Communist Anglosphere? The Communist Party of Great … Continue reading Society names LHR essay prize winner for 2022

EditorMCAugust 4, 2022September 13, 2022

Commentary, Labour history news

Communist women leaders in the 1920s and 1930s

Alan Campbell and John McIlroy share headline findings from their research into the lives of the women who sat on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain in its first two decades. In two recent articles, we examine a small group of women active in the labour movement who participated in the leadership of British Communism between the foundation of the Communist … Continue reading Communist women leaders in the 1920s and 1930s

EditorMCAugust 1, 2022