The SSLH publishes the book series Studies in Labour History in association with Liverpool University Press. We also publish book reviews in our journal, the Labour History Review.
The articles below draw attention to new books, reports, pamphlets, and online publications and projects of interest to labour historians.
John Clare (1793-1864) is considered England’s greatest working class poet. Greatly admired for his poetry and prose on the natural world, its joys and its losses, he has become an icon for the environmental movement. But in a new selection by Mike Mecham, a member of the Society for the Study of Labour History’s EC and chair of the John Clare Society, the poet is … Continue reading Clare’s People: poetry from below
Michael Herbert (ed.), “M.A.L” The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford, self-published through Lulu.com and available here, 2024, p/b, pp. 540, £15.99, ISBN 978 14452 05465 Madeline Linford (1895-1975) was a pioneer. She was the first woman on the editorial staff of the Manchester Guardian and edited the first women’s page for the paper from 1922 to 1939. (‘Women’s World’ columns, often merely sops … Continue reading The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford
In Screen Workers and the Irish Film Industry, Dr Denis Murphy traces the evolution since the 1950s of screen production industries on the island of Ireland. More specifically he looks at the people who work in its film, television dramas, documentary and animation industries – how they have shaped the work they do and the conditions under which that work is carried out. This is … Continue reading A labour history of Ireland’s film industry
National Service Life Stories is a new book that explores how the experience of compulsory military service shaped a generation of largely working class men. Continue reading National Service Life Stories: Masculinity, Class and the Memory of Conscription in Britain
Jim Phillips introduces his new oral history of the miners’ strike in Scotland, its aftermath, and the long but eventually successful campaign to right the wrongs of 1984-85. Continue reading Coalfield Justice: listening to veteran strikers
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
From equal pay to the Beeching cuts, Labour’s record in office has been distinctly mixed. Here, Richard Temple introduces his new book, drawing on a century-long record of government to provide a balanced assessment of the party’s impact on ordinary people. It’s unusual to remember the exact moment when you have an idea for a book. But I remember mine. It was prompted by the … Continue reading Taken as Red: Highs and Lows of the Labour Party, 1924-2019
The minutes of a succession of socialist societies in West Norfolk between 1897 and 1916 have been published. Continue reading Norfolk socialist societies, 1897-1916
The Liverpool University Press summer sale is now on. LUP, the Society’s partner in publishing Labour History Review and the Studies in Labour History book series, is offering up to 50% off print and ebooks purchased on its website. Use discount code ‘27SUMMER’ at checkout. Sale ends 14th July! ☀️ See books in the Studies in Labour History book series. Go to the LUP website. Continue reading Liverpool University Press summer sale
Hugh Clegg was a founding figure of post-war British industrial relations. He defined ‘industrial democracy’ as collective bargaining with trade unions, laid the foundations for the pluralist approach to industrial relations, was a key figure in the post-war social sciences, and a major public policy player. In a new book, Trade Unions and the British Industrial Relations Crisis, Peter Ackers, Emeritus Professor in the History … Continue reading Hugh Clegg: intellectual biography of a key figure in industrial relations and labour history
Society for the Study of Labour History 