Next year marks one hundred years since the General Strike of 1926. The Society for the Study of Labour History is proud to be a part of a national partnership of fifteen museums, libraries and groups working together to commemorate the strike. Find out how you can support this partnership. This project is supported by: Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, Campaign for Trade … Continue reading Marking the centenary of the General Strike
A special virtual issue of Historical Studies in Industrial Relations dealing with the General Strike and mining lockout of 1926 has been published to the Liverpool University Press website. Drawing on articles published in the journal over recent years, it includes an open access selective bibliography compiled by John McIlroy, Alan Campbell, Keith Laybourn, and Quentin Outram running to twenty-four pages. The virtual issue also … Continue reading Historical Studies in Industrial Relations: the General Strike of 1926
As the centenary of the 1926 General Strike approaches, the Society for the Study of Labour History has joined a group of museums, libraries, archives, and history groups in a national collaboration to mark the occasion. The General Strike 100 project is working in partnership with the trade union and wider labour movement to develop an interactive map of sites for public visitation throughout 2026. This … Continue reading General Strike 100: planning for the centenary
In September 1926, Walter Milne-Bailey, head of the TUC research department, sat down to record his thoughts on the General Strike, which had taken place in May of that year. As we approach the centenary of that event, the typewritten script of his report has been digitized and published online by the TUC Library Collections.1 Milne-Bailey notes at the very start of his report that … Continue reading A Nation on Strike: first thoughts on 1926
The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (3), 279-293. Read more. Hester Barron reviews Agnes Arnold-Forster and Alison Moulds (eds), Feelings and Work in Modern History: Emotional Labour and Emotions about Labour, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, pp. xii + 265, h/b, £85, ISBN 978 13501 97183 Micaela Panes reviews Daryl Leeworthy, Causes in Common: Welsh Women and the Struggle for Social Democracy, Cardiff: University of Wales … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), Issue 3
Dr Andrew Hobbs writes… I’m writing something on weekly publications produced during the 1853-54 Preston Lock-Out in North-West England, when thousands of cotton workers were locked out of the mills over their demand for a 10% restoration of wages (the event which inspired Charles Dickens’s Hard Times and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South). These publications called themselves balance sheets — they list donations to the … Continue reading Researching the Preston lock-out
Patrick Renshaw, who has died aged 87, began his academic career with a series of well-received books on trade union and labour history, and went on to teach American Studies at the University of Sheffield for nearly thirty years, turning his hand to significant and enduring works on US labour and political history. Born in West Ham and educated at Wanstead County High School, Renshaw … Continue reading Patrick Renshaw (1936 – 2023)
Newspapers and magazines always like to list their ‘best books of the year’ as Christmas approaches. But what if the best books weren’t published this year? Preferring to take a longer perspective, we asked labour historians to tell us about a work relevant to labour history that they felt was overlooked, should be better known – or which simply meant something to them. Here’s what … Continue reading Well read: labour historians recommend books that deserve to be better known
One hundred and eighty years ago the people of Halifax marched to demand bread and the ballot. Now thanks to Calderdale Trades Council and its supporters, their struggle has been marked with a series of events and in more permanent ways, as Dan Whittall explains. At least 150 people gathered in Halifax on Saturday 13 August to take part in a series of commemorative events … Continue reading ‘They came for bread not bayonets’: Halifax marks the Great Strike of 1842
Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2 has now been published. Contemporary images of the 1926 General Strike often show smiling volunteers good-naturedly going about the business of keeping the country running. In this issue of Labour History Review, Liam Ryan explores the involvement of often middle-class strike breakers in the period 1911-1926 and lifts the lid on the unexplored darker and often violent … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2
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