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

Graham Skeate (KU Leuven & Edinburgh) on the life, labour and spaces of Glasgow Showpeople

This report outlines my research on the spatial practices of Glasgow’s Showpeople, focusing on the domestic yards where they live between periods of travelling fairground work. These yards—often built into the city’s post-industrial landscape—are not simply resting places but complex working environments. They are shaped by Showpeople’s cultural knowledge, and wider urban pressures. My research details how these spaces are designed, maintained, and defended—what they … Continue reading Graham Skeate (KU Leuven & Edinburgh) on the life, labour and spaces of Glasgow Showpeople

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Emily Thorpe (Durham) on photographic representations of coalfield women in the 1984-85 miners’ strike

My dissertation investigates how professional photography both presented and produced the figure of the coalfield woman during and after the 1984-85 miners’ strike across Yorkshire and County Durham. After attending the inspiring third annual John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture delivered by Natalie Thomlinson in November 2024, I became interested in understanding how photographic material and practices helped to construct and consolidate the ‘heroic narrative’ of … Continue reading Emily Thorpe (Durham) on photographic representations of coalfield women in the 1984-85 miners’ strike

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Events

CFP: Precarity and Scale in the History of Colonial Labour

Labour and Empire Working Group, ELHN Conference 2026: Precarity and Scale in the History of Colonial Labour. University of Barcelona, 16-19 June 2026. Call for papers deadline 30 June 2025 Following up on a long-term project on working-class anti-imperialism, explored in publications (Beliard, Kirk 2021) and at conferences (most recently in Bristol 2023 and Uppsala), the European Labour History Network’s Labour & Empire Working Group … Continue reading CFP: Precarity and Scale in the History of Colonial Labour

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Commentary

One strike or two? How data changes undermine what we know about stoppages

Changes over the past decade to the ways in which data on strikes is collected and published risk undermining the value for academics and policy-makers of a series which has been running since the 1890s, according to an analysis by industrial relations specialist Dr Dave Lyddon. In an open access article for the Industrial Relations Journal, Dr Lyddon argues that the most recent change, which … Continue reading One strike or two? How data changes undermine what we know about stoppages

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Events

Conference: Starmer Year One

Bookings are now open for the ‘Starmer Year One’ conference organised by the Labour History Research Unit at Anglia Ruskin University. The event takes place on 14 June 2025 in Cambridge. Conference organiser Professor Rohan McWilliam says: ‘By the time we get to 14 June the government will have been in power for almost a year and politics may be a little different. The results … Continue reading Conference: Starmer Year One

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Labour history news

Yorkshire Miners Association archives now indexed and catalogued online

Work at the Modern Records Centre to catalogue the archive of the Yorkshire Miners Association is now complete with a catalogue live online at the University of Warwick website. The catalogue also includes the records of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Yorkshire Area and represents a major and significant addition to the collection of NUM and coal mining material held by MRC and now … Continue reading Yorkshire Miners Association archives now indexed and catalogued online

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Events, Grants

Report: the history and legacy of the 1984/5 miners’ strike

Keith Gildart reports on a conference/symposium on the History and Legacy of the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike, held at the National Coal Mining Museum for England This year marked the fortieth anniversary of the end of the miners’ strike of 1984/5. This seismic event is now widely regarded as one of the key-turning points in post-war British history. In recent years a number of books, articles, … Continue reading Report: the history and legacy of the 1984/5 miners’ strike

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Labour History Review, SSLH news

Labour History Review celebrates 90th edition

We are pleased to announce that Labour History Review is celebrating the publication of its 90th edition. Published in association with Liverpool University Press, alongside the book series Studies in Labour History, LHR and its predecessor, the Society for the Study of Labour History Bulletin, has since 1960 explored the working lives and politics of ‘ordinary’ people and has played a key role in redefining social and political history. … Continue reading Labour History Review celebrates 90th edition

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Labour History Review

Labour History Review Volume 90 (2025), issue 1

Labour History Review Volume 90 (2025), Issue 1 has now been published. The journal appears both in hard copy and online formats.  In this issue… We begin with a round-table discussion of Keir Starmer’s Labour Government in historical perspective. The editors note that if, six months on, the signs might not be as positive as we would like, the election of Starmer’s Labour nevertheless represents … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 90 (2025), issue 1

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