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.
Labour History Review

Classics of labour history: Malcolm Chase and the story of Chartism

Chartism has been a central part of labour history since the discipline emerged. A brief flurry of activity in the early 1920s led nowhere in particular, but Professor Asa Briggs’ Chartist Studies (1959) opened the door to what Dr Stephen Roberts has dubbed a ‘golden period’ of research and publication (see below). Dorothy Thompson, meanwhile, led the intellectual effort to centre Chartism not just as … Continue reading Classics of labour history: Malcolm Chase and the story of Chartism

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Labour history news

Petition aims to save mill museum at Belper world heritage site

A museum that tells the story of a significant part of Derbyshire’s industrial history looks set to close its doors in September 2022 after Amber Valley Borough Council halted a long-standing funding arrangement. Campaigners are now seeking support for a petition to restore funding and keep it open. Belper North Mill Museum, part of the Derwent Valley Mills Unesco World Heritage site, shows how cotton … Continue reading Petition aims to save mill museum at Belper world heritage site

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Documents & objects

The Edwardes Plan and Your Job: when the 1970s ended and the managerialist 1980s began

By November 1979, the ‘Winter of Discontent’ was long past, Margaret Thatcher was nearing her first Christmas as prime minister, and everything had changed. But if you were looking to identify the exact moment at which the confident trade unionism of the 1970s gave way to the rising managerialism of the 1980s, you could do worse than choose the day that this pamphlet landed on … Continue reading The Edwardes Plan and Your Job: when the 1970s ended and the managerialist 1980s began

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Labour History Review

Classics of labour history: John L. Halstead on the life of Royden Harrison

Any organisation that has been in existence for more than half a century is bound to endure the loss of much-loved and admired members whose long years of service have mirrored their professional progress from rising stars to elder statesmen and women. In this obituary, published in Labour History Review in 2003, Dr John L. Halstead, who himself died in 2021 (obituary), recorded the career … Continue reading Classics of labour history: John L. Halstead on the life of Royden Harrison

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 1

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2022), 87, (1), 91-108. Find out more. Dave Lyddon reviews Keith Gildart and David Howell (eds), Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol. 15, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp. xv + 320, h/b, £109.99, ISBN 978 11374 57455, ebook, £87.50, ISBN 978 11374 57462Royden Harrison reviews vol. 1, Bulletin of the SSLH, 1972.Listing of all entries in volumes 1-15. Lewis Darwen … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 1

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Labour History Review

Classics of labour history: first meeting of the SSLH

The Society for the Study of Labour History marked its fiftieth birthday in 2010 with a special supplement to Labour History Review looking back on half a century of the Society’s existence and the prospects for labour history. The whole was introduced by John McIlroy, who analysed the wider context within which the SSLH was founded in 1960, and provided a colourful account of its … Continue reading Classics of labour history: first meeting of the SSLH

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