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.
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Lara Green (Northumbria) on the international networks developed by Russian revolutionaries

My research focuses on transnational networks established by Russian revolutionaries who promoted terrorism in emigration between 1881 and 1915, looking at how they represented themselves in relation to contemporary debates about socialism, anarchism and terrorism abroad in their publications aimed at both English- and Russian-speaking audiences. Émigré communities played an important role in the Russian revolutionary movement from the second half of the nineteenth century … Continue reading Lara Green (Northumbria) on the international networks developed by Russian revolutionaries

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

David Strittmatter (Buffalo) on the erasure of St Peter’s Field as a site of commemoration

The great E.P. Thompson wrote in his magisterial The Making of the English Working Class that ‘1819 was a rehearsal for 1832’. Thompson drew a direct line from the Peterloo Massacre to the Great Reform Act. Indeed, the crowd of 60,000 that gathered in an open space near St. Peter’s Church in central Manchester on August 16, 1819, came to hear reform-minded speakers. Famously, the … Continue reading David Strittmatter (Buffalo) on the erasure of St Peter’s Field as a site of commemoration

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Sophie Roberts (Northumbria) on anti-Vietnam War activist and Labour MP Ann Kerr

I am extremely grateful for the bursary received from the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH), which enabled me to undertake archival research at the Hull History Centre in August 2016. The materials I consulted at Hull are essential for my thesis, which looks at a number of British female anti-Vietnam War protesters in the period roughly from 1965-74. The money kindly granted … Continue reading Sophie Roberts (Northumbria) on anti-Vietnam War activist and Labour MP Ann Kerr

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Emma Dewhirst (Liverpool) on the interaction between Irish republican organisations, 1912-1923

A number of Irish republican volunteer groups participated in the events that made up the Irish Revolution from 1912-1923, including the Easter Rising, War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War. My PhD thesis does not focus solely on one organisation but the myriad of organisations active during this period: the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), Na Fianna Éireann (Irish Nationalist Boy Scouts), Irish Volunteers, Cumann … Continue reading Emma Dewhirst (Liverpool) on the interaction between Irish republican organisations, 1912-1923

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Carin Peller Semmens (Sussex) on the legacies of slavery in North Louisiana’s Red River region

My doctoral work examines the ideological, political, economic and behavioural legacies of slavery in North Louisiana’s Red River region from the early entrenchment of slavery in the 1820s through the violent and charged 1870s and 1880s. It investigates the foundation and significance of white dominated power structures in the shaping of black and white relations. The rigid power dynamic established by slavery proved particularly resilient … Continue reading Carin Peller Semmens (Sussex) on the legacies of slavery in North Louisiana’s Red River region

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Obituaries

Dr Sigrid McCausland

The SSLH is saddened to learn of the passing of the Australian archivist and activist Dr Sigrid McCausland. Sigrid served as University Archivist at both the University of Technology, Sydney and the Australian National University, where she successfully spearheaded the fight to save the Noel Butlin Archives Centre.(The Noel Butlin Archive centre is a repository for labour movement records in Australia and the Pacific). Continue reading Dr Sigrid McCausland

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Books etc

Grunwick: the workers’ story

Commemorating 40 years since the beginning of the Grunwick Dispute, this seminal text examines the intersection of trade unions, race and the law during one of the most defining events for unions of the twentieth century. The Grunwick Dispute fundamentally changed the way trade unions operated, and brought migrant labour concerns to the fore. This second edition of Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor’s work is … Continue reading Grunwick: the workers’ story

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Labour history news

Mapping the 1926 General Strike

Staff at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, have digitised more than 450 documents on Britain’s only General Strike of May 1926. The digitised documents include internal reports from the Trades Union Congress (the strike’s co-ordinator), bulletins issued by newspapers and strike committees, and the TUC’s transcripts of BBC radio broadcasts. As well as presenting the sources as a database of digitised documents, the team has been … Continue reading Mapping the 1926 General Strike

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Documents & objects, Labour history news

Skelmanthorpe Banner 1819

This cotton flag or banner is a rare survivor of thousands of banners carried at meetings calling for electoral reform and suffrage. It has a remarkable story. It was designed and made in 1819, to honour the victims of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester. It was mounted on poles and taken to meetings throughout the 19th Century, starting with a reform meeting at Almondbury Bank … Continue reading Skelmanthorpe Banner 1819

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Obituaries, SSLH news

Asa Briggs (1921-2016): historian and founder member of the SSLH

The Society is sorry to hear of the death of the eminent historian Asa Briggs who was a founder member of the SSLH. He was a pioneer of labour history and a man of many talents. You can read more about his influence on modern social and cultural history in obituaries published in the Guardian and the Yorkshire Post. John McIlroy, a former secretary of the SSLH, has written a … Continue reading Asa Briggs (1921-2016): historian and founder member of the SSLH

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