Classics of labour history: first meeting of the SSLH

The Society for the Study of Labour History marked its fiftieth birthday in 2010 with a special supplement to Labour History Review looking back on half a century of the Society’s existence and the prospects for labour history. The whole was introduced by John McIlroy, who analysed the wider context within which the SSLH was founded in 1960, and provided a colourful account of its … Continue reading Classics of labour history: first meeting of the SSLH

EditorMCApril 14, 2022May 7, 2022

Labour History Review

Classics of labour history: volume one of the Dictionary of Labour Biography

Fifteen volumes of the Dictionary of Labour Biography have now appeared in print, and there is as yet no sign that the series is anywhere near complete. When the labour historian Royden Harrison (1927-2002) reviewed volume one for the SSLH Bulletin back in 1972 (below), his main complaint was that the price of £10 was clearly ‘preposterous’. For generations of students, however, the ever-growing resource … Continue reading Classics of labour history: volume one of the Dictionary of Labour Biography

EditorMCApril 7, 2022May 7, 2022

Labour History Review

Classics of labour history: Margaret Cole on Fabian socialism

Margaret Cole never held office in the Society for the Study of Labour History, yet without her influence it may never have come into existence. Born Margaret Postgate in 1893, she came to politics during the first world war, when she campaigned on behalf of her brother, the imprisoned socialist conscientious objector Raymond Postgate, and through him met the political theorist and historian G.D.H. ‘Douglas’ … Continue reading Classics of labour history: Margaret Cole on Fabian socialism

EditorMCMarch 31, 2022May 7, 2022

Labour History Review

Classics of labour history: The Making of the English Working Class

It is almost impossible today to think about labour history without some reference to E.P. Thompson’s classic work The Making of the English Working Class. Read by millions in the fifty years since its publication, and loved by many, it is by any measure a core text of social and economic history, and its importance was recognised from the start. The review republished here, written … Continue reading Classics of labour history: The Making of the English Working Class

EditorMCMarch 24, 2022May 7, 2022

Labour History Review

Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 3

Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 3 has now been published. This special themed issue of Labour History Review on ‘Challenges to State Socialism in Central and Eastern Europe: Activists, Movements and Alliances in the 1970s and 1980s’ is edited by Daniel Laqua and Charlotte Alston. In this issue: Daniel Laqua and Charlotte Alston on Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 3

EditorMCJanuary 8, 2022

Labour History Review

Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s

Authors: Daniel Laqua and Charlotte AlstonThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 295-311. Find out more. This article introduces a special Labour History Review issue on the subject of Challenges to State Socialism in Central and Eastern Europe: Activists, Movements and Alliances in the 1970s and 1980s. Our piece highlights different stimuli for dissent and opposition in the Eastern bloc, drawing … Continue reading Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s

EditorMCJanuary 8, 2022

Labour History Review

‘Gamekeeper Turned Poacher’: Frank Chapple, Anti-Communism and Soviet Human Rights Violations

Author: Mark HurstThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 313-337. Find out more. The inclusion of the British trade union leader Frank Chapple on the panel of the 1985 Sakharov hearings, an event designed to hold the Soviet authorities to account for their violation of human rights, raises questions about the workings of the broader network of activists … Continue reading ‘Gamekeeper Turned Poacher’: Frank Chapple, Anti-Communism and Soviet Human Rights Violations

EditorMCJanuary 8, 2022

Labour History Review

Solidarity in Search of Human Agency: ‘Détente from Below’ and Independent Peace Activists in the Soviet Union

Author: Irina GordeevaThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 339-368. Find out more. While the histories of Western grassroots movements and the officially sanctioned, communist-sponsored peace movement are well known, the independent peace activists of the Soviet bloc have remained footnotes in the history of social movements. The Group for the Establishment of Trust between East and West … Continue reading Solidarity in Search of Human Agency: ‘Détente from Below’ and Independent Peace Activists in the Soviet Union

EditorMCJanuary 8, 2022

Labour History Review

Transnational Dimensions of a ‘German Case’: The Expatriation of Wolf Biermann and the Politics of Solidarity in the 1970s

Author: Daniel LaquaThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 369-396. Find out more. In November 1976, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) announced the expatriation of the dissident singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann, preventing his return from a concert tour in West Germany. This step attracted widespread press coverage and sparked a substantial expression of solidarity by East German intellectuals. This … Continue reading Transnational Dimensions of a ‘German Case’: The Expatriation of Wolf Biermann and the Politics of Solidarity in the 1970s

EditorMCJanuary 8, 2022January 8, 2022

Labour History Review

Green Volunteers in Czechoslovakia: The Youth Magazine Mladý svět and its Environmental Campaign, 1970s–1980s

Author: Alexandra WedlThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 397-423. Find out more. Concern with environmental degradation was one factor contributing to the discontent preceding the revolutions of 1989 in East-Central Europe. This article identifies the trajectories of environmental activism in Czechoslovakia, one of the most industrialized countries of the post-1945 socialist bloc. Analysing the media representation of … Continue reading Green Volunteers in Czechoslovakia: The Youth Magazine Mladý svět and its Environmental Campaign, 1970s–1980s

EditorMCJanuary 8, 2022