Members and supporters of the Society for the Study of Labour History are invited to the launch of Shout for Freedom: A Sonic History of Chartism and the Origins of British Democracy, a new book by Dr David Kennerley. From the clank of machinery to the beauty of birdsong, the tramp of marching feet to the exhilaration of a dance, the cheering of crowds to … Continue reading Book Launch: Shout for Freedom – the sound of Chartism
Some fifty delegates crowded into the seventeenth-century Friends Meeting House at Warwick on Saturday 19 September for Chartism Day 2026 to hear speakers range across the history and historiography of the Chartist movement. Mark Crail reports. Apart from a two-year hiatus during covid, the event has been held annually since September 1995 when, under the guidance of the renowned Chartist historian Dorothy Thompson, the first … Continue reading Chartism Day 2026: conference report
The generosity of the Society for the Study of Labour History enabled me to conduct research in Belgium and the Netherlands for my MSt (Modern European History) dissertation exploring the impact of the Second Industrial Revolution (specifically, mechanisation) upon the organisation and politics of gunworkers during the fin-de-siècle. The global arms trade was highly political at the turn of the twentieth century (this is no … Continue reading Isaac Stephenson (Oxford) on the organisation and politics of gunworkers in England and Belgium, 1886-1914
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
A one-day conference on ‘Transfers of socialism between France and Great Britain, and its popular reception, in the long nineteenth century’ will take place at the University of Tours, France, 8-9 February 2024. The call for papers is now closed. Please note that the conference proceedings are in French. Programme de la JEJeudi 8 février 2024 14h :J.-J. Tatin (U. Tours) : « Les textes … Continue reading Transfers of socialism between France and Great Britain, and its popular reception, in the long nineteenth century
