SSLH news

SSLH reissues subject guides for researchers

The Society for the Study of Labour History has reissued all five of the labour history subject guides compiled by our Archives and Resources Committee, making them available to download in PDF format. Each guide includes details of the main archives in which relevant material can be found, the archives’ holdings, and current contact details. The five guides cover: Find out more about the work … Continue reading SSLH reissues subject guides for researchers

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Labour history news

Transactions: 170th anniversary of the Preston strike and lock-out of 1853–1854

Six months into the Preston lock-out, the most famous novelist of the day visited the town in search of a story for Household Words and inspiration for his novel-in-progress, Hard Times. After three days at the Bull Hotel Charles Dickens declared Preston a ‘nasty place’ and the whole situation a ‘deplorable calamity’. He returned to London with his suspicions of trade union leaders intact and … Continue reading Transactions: 170th anniversary of the Preston strike and lock-out of 1853–1854

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Labour history news

First tranche of NUM archives now indexed online in huge Warwick MRC project

Just over half way through its three-year project to conserve and catalogue the archives of the National Union of Mineworkers, the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick has published the first five catalogues relating to early workers’ organisations in the mining industry. The vast archive collection, previously held at the NUM headquarters in Barnsley, was relocated to Warwick in January 2023 following specialist … Continue reading First tranche of NUM archives now indexed online in huge Warwick MRC project

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Books etc, Events

Book launch: the political thought of Aneurin Bevan

More than sixty years after his death, Aneurin Bevan remains a core figure in the story of the Labour Party and the left. A book by Nye Davies that sets out to explore Bevan’s political thinking appears this autumn and is to be launched at an event hosted by Llafur, the Welsh People’s History Society, in Bevan’s home town of Tredegar. Published by the University … Continue reading Book launch: the political thought of Aneurin Bevan

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Events, Labour history news

Chartism Day 2024 report: centennial event in honour of Dorothy Thompson’s intellectual legacy

Chartism Day 2024 took place at the University of Reading. One hundred years on from the birth of the great Chartist historian Dorothy Thompson, the event sought to honour her intellectual legacy with a wide-ranging selection of papers that highlighted the field’s continuing vigour. Dorothy Thompson was ‘formidable’, and would not have minded in the least being described as such, Dr Joan Allen told delegates … Continue reading Chartism Day 2024 report: centennial event in honour of Dorothy Thompson’s intellectual legacy

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Labour history news

A blue plaque for the Chartist Northern Star

The Northern Star was the paper that made Chartism. In addition to providing news of the movement’s activities locally and nationally, and a forum for ideas and debate, it created a great national political community, and both organised and mobilised its readers behind the Charter and other radical causes. From its launch at the tail end of 1837 until its relocation to London in 1844, … Continue reading A blue plaque for the Chartist Northern Star

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Documents & objects

Are you a socialist? The ILP’s six-point test for would-be members

‘Are you a socialist?’ enquired the Independent Labour Party in a recruitment leaflet published in March 1909. It went on to list six questions about the reader’s beliefs, to which, if the answer were to be ‘yes’, the appropriate course of action would be to join the ILP and help carry its principles into effect. The leaflet itself is of little significance. It includes an … Continue reading Are you a socialist? The ILP’s six-point test for would-be members

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SSLH news

Society quits X for more positive online spaces

The Society for the Study of Labour History has halted its use of the X social media platform (formerly known as Twitter). We will, instead, focus social media efforts on Facebook and Bluesky, where the Society already has a significant presence. The Society has published the statement below to the X account along with links to other places where we can be found online. The … Continue reading Society quits X for more positive online spaces

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Will Graham (Northumbria): Greenham Common peace camp activists, the NUM and Women Against Pit Closures

My dissertation project aims to understand how peace activists at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in Berkshire, interacted and worked with fellow political activists at local and national levels, but also across national borders during the Cold War of the 1980s. An important aspect of this concerns the link between the peace women of Greenham Common and female activists in the National Union of … Continue reading Will Graham (Northumbria): Greenham Common peace camp activists, the NUM and Women Against Pit Closures

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