The Struggle for Dignity: Mining Communities and the 1926 Lock-Out - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0708318207 ISBN 13: 9780708318201

Publisher: University of Wales Press, 2004

Synopsis

The seven-month British national mining lockout of 1926 was one of the most important European industrial disputes of the twentieth century. It not only came to symbolize the defeat of the labor movement in the interwar years, but it also cast a long shadow over industrial relations in the mining industry and epitomized the predicament of British miners in the early decades of the century. Industrial Politics draws on new methodological perspectives that have emerged in recent labor studies in order to comprehensively survey this event at the national, local, and regional levels, and makes a significant contribution to the social and political history of the industrial working class.

About this title

About the Author

John McIlroy is Reader in Sociology, University of Manchester. The author of numerous articles on industrial relations and labour history, his books include Trade Unions in Britain Today and The Permanent Revolution?: Conservative Law and the Trade Unions. He was an editor of British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics, 1945–79 and Party People, Communist Lives: Explorations in Biography. He is a member of the editorial boards of Labour History Review, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, Historical Materialism and Revolutionary History.

Alan Campbell is Senior Lecturer in the School of History, University of Liverpool. His books include The Lanarkshire Miners: A Social History of their Trade Unions, 1775–1874 and the two-volume The Scottish Miners, 1874–1939. He co-edited Miners, Unions and Politics, 1910–47 and Party People, Communist Lives: Explorations in Biography. He is a former editor of Labour History Review and a longstanding member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Labour History.

Keith Gildart is Senior Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Wolverhampton. A former miner, he is the author of North Wales Miners: A Fragile Unity, 1945-1996 and has recently been a Research Fellow at the University of York. He co-edits The Dictionary of Labour Biography.

Review

“This study, with its original approach, makes fascinating reading . . .” –Planet (Planet)

“This volume of essays provides a welcome contribution to our understanding of the history of the miners between the wars. It is scholarly and judicious, but often passionate, disputatious and eloquent...” –Tribune

(Tribune)

“It is rare to come across a book as truly pioneering as Industrial Politics and the 1926 Mining Lockout . . . all the contributions are good and some are ground-breaking . . . This book is essential for anyone interested in Britain’s 20th-century industrial politics . . .” –THES

(THES)

“. . . the firm focus of this volume on the lock-out rather than the strike is path-breaking . . . The tragedy of 1926 is marvellously evoked in this meticulously researched, well written collection.” –History Workshop Journal

(History Workshop Journal)

“The editors successfully orchestrate an impressive group of specialists to provide in-depth analysis that never neglects the importance of individuals . . . broadly conceived, argumentative and clear . . .” –British Journal of Industrial Relations

(British Journal of Industrial Relations)

“This is a valuable addition to the literature and an enjoyable and interesting read. It provides the first detailed, analytical and scholarly examination of a key episode in British trade union, social and political history. This study brings out the short and long term consequences of the coal lockout with in-depth area studies as well as thematic expositions of the role of mineowners, women, the police and the Communist Party.” –Chris Wrigley, Professor of Modern British History, University of Nottingham

(Chris Wrigley)

“The seven months of the miners’ lock-out have been overshadowed by the nine days of the general strike. This rich analysis of the longer dispute documents the heroism and endurance but also the complexity of the struggle. It provides a powerful account of miners and their leaders striving against the odds to control their own destiny.” –Richard Hyman, Professor of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics

(Richard Hyman)

“This book has three outstanding strengths. First, it places the general strike of 1926 in the context of the miners' lockout. Second, it recovers the personal histories of the lockout; the tragedies and the heroics of ordinary people struggling for decent wages and conditions against the indecent forces of history. And third, it demonstrates the importance of the collective memory of the lockout for the wider history of industrial politics in Britain. Not until the demise of coal miners and the coal industry after 1984 did the experience of 1926 cease to resonate throughout the politics of twentieth century Britain.” –Richard Price, Professor of British History, University of Maryland

(Richard Price)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0708318207
• ISBN 13: 9780708318201
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: McIlroy John, Campbell Alan, Gildart Keith