Category: Labour history news

News and information of interest to labour historians.

Labour history news

Cash boost for working-class history projects

Historic England has announced funding for 56 new working-class history projects over the next two years. Awards under the £875,000 Everyday Heritage Grants programme range from £6,800 to £25,000 per individual project. Among those to receive funding are the Tolpuddle Old Chapel Trust, which gets £9,978 for its Tolpuddle Family Lives: A People’s Heritage project, and LGBT+ Northern Social Group, which gets £10,940 for Pink Triangles and … Continue reading Cash boost for working-class history projects

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Books etc, Labour history news

Labour history books in paperback

Two more books in the Studies in Labour History series will soon be published in paperback. The series is published by the Society in association with Liverpool University Press and currently includes nineteen books. Workers of the Empire, Unite: Radical and Popular Challenges to British Imperialism, 1910s-1960s, by Yann Béliard and Professor Neville Kirk, is due out on 1 March 2024. An important contribution to … Continue reading Labour history books in paperback

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Labour history news, SSLH news

Society urges government to drop ‘elitist’ and ‘foolhardy’ plan to destroy historic wills

The Society for the Study of Labour History is calling on the Ministry of Justice to drop plans which would see the destruction of millions of original wills dating as far back as 1858. In a written response to the government’s consultation exercise, the Society argues that the plan is both elitist and flawed. Jump to our response. The proposals were put forward by the … Continue reading Society urges government to drop ‘elitist’ and ‘foolhardy’ plan to destroy historic wills

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Labour history news

One hundred years on: the first Labour government

One hundred years ago today, the first Labour Government took office. Led by James Ramsay MacDonald as prime minister and foreign secretary, the men (though no women) in its ranks included former coal miners and textile workers, a railwayman, an iron founder, and even a labour historian. Many had worked for decades on behalf of the Independent Labour Party or their trade union before entering … Continue reading One hundred years on: the first Labour government

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Labour history news

Inside the archive of Labour MP Ann Clwyd

Rob Phillips outlines the work of the Welsh Political Archive to make a huge archive donated by the former Labour MP Ann Clwyd, who died in 2023, available to researchers. Ann Clwyd, former Labour MP for the Cynon Valley, enjoyed a long and colourful political career. Prior to her election at a by-election in 1984 she had been a Member of the European Parliament for … Continue reading Inside the archive of Labour MP Ann Clwyd

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Labour history news

Labour history on show: highlights from the People’s History Museum collection

From the first ever minute book of the Labour Representation Committee to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s jacket, People’s History Museum is offering people the opportunity to see some of the vast collection of objects in its care that help reflect the story of the Labour Party. Among the highlights of the collection now online to mark the centenary of the first Labour government that … Continue reading Labour history on show: highlights from the People’s History Museum collection

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Labour history news

Ten labour history anniversaries in 2024

The American historian William M Johnston talked in his book Celebrations about a ‘cult’ of anniversaries. And he noted how they provide an opportunity – or excuse – to mark the passage of time in ways that help communities to build and sustain a sense of identity. For many in the labour movement, there could be no bigger anniversary in 2024 than the centenary of … Continue reading Ten labour history anniversaries in 2024

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Labour history news

Scottish Labour History, 2023

The new issue of Scottish Labour History for 2023 is out now, with more than 250 pages of notices and reports, articles, shorter ‘profiles in Scottish labour history’ and an extensive book reviews section. Published by the Scottish Labour History Society, volume 58 opens with an introduction by Gregor Gall and Jim Phillips, who note the one hundredth anniversary on 23 November of the death … Continue reading Scottish Labour History, 2023

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Labour history news

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, 2023

The new issue of Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (44, 2023) looks at a British printers’ strike for the 40-hour week in 1959 that ended in victory and then spread to other manual workers. In ‘Girls, Wives, Factory Lives: 50 years on’, Anna Pollert revisits her 1970s ethnographic study of women’s working lives at the Churchman tobacco factory in Bristol to discuss her qualitative methodology … Continue reading Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, 2023

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Labour history news

The Making of the English Working Class: sixtieth anniversary broadcasts

This year sees the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of E.P. Thompson’s influential and much admired The Making of the English Working Class (Victor Gollancz, 1963). BBC Radio Three’s The Essay this week marks the event with a series of five programmes under the title ‘The Enormous Condescension of Posterity’ – a phrase taken from Thompson’s preface. The series runs nightly at 22:45 for 15 minutes from Monday … Continue reading The Making of the English Working Class: sixtieth anniversary broadcasts

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