Trade Union Ancestors

In this original and absorbing book Alastair Reid presents working people as integral to British society. Looking both at individual workers and at the often vast organisations that have represented them, he shows how unions have throughout the modern era been a crucial element in British life and that all governments have - whether they like it or not - had to develop policies to deal with them.

On 3 May 1926, two million workers downed tools and came out on strike. The strike was perhaps the most dramatic peacetime event in 20th century Britain, but was remarkable more for its discipline than for picket line violence. Capitulation, when it came on 12 May, was almost as total as it was unexpected. A Very British Strike provides a fast-paced and authoritative account of the events that led up to the strike and of its aftermath.

This account of artisan and working-class society in its formative years, 1780 to 1832, aims to add a dimension to our understanding of the 19th century. The author shows how the working class took part in its own making and re-creates the whole-life experience of people who suffered loss of status and freedom, who underwent degradation and who yet created a culture and political conscience of great vitality.

This is a study of how the labouring poor of nineteenth-century industrial England saw the social order of which they were a part. It attacks orthodoxies and sets up new questions by attending to a wide range of contemporary experience, from politics and work to language and art.

In 1994 the author revealed, for the first time, the astonishing lengths to which the Conservative government and its secret services were prepared to go to destroy the power of Britain's miners' union. This edition has been updated for the 20th anniversary of the Miners' Strike.

Arthur Horner (1894-1968) was a miners' leader from 1926 to his retirement as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1959. He played a crucial role in the fight for a national mineworkers union, and the development of the National Coal Board. Horner was a committed communist who was also able to exercise effective leadership in a trade union committed to social democratic principles.

Stewart Imlach was an ordinary neighbourhood soccer star of his time. A brilliant winger who thrilled the crowd on Saturdays, then worked alongside them in the off-season; who represented Scotland in the 1958 World Cup and never received a cap for his efforts; who was Man of the Match for Nottingham Forest in the 1959 FA Cup Final, and was rewarded with the standard offer - £20 a week, take it or leave it.

The Classic English Slum: Growing up in Salford in the First Quarter of the Century

Roberts grew up in Salford, next door to Manchester, in the early decades of the 20th century, and has left us a wonderful account of working class life in one of the poorest cities in the UK. Although writing about the same area, Roberts and Engels (60 years earlier) have very different things to say about the condition of the working class and their attitudes at the time.

Writing Your Family History helps family historians realize the full potential of the names, dates and facts that they have researched to compile a detailed family history that will be preserved for future generations.

Tressell's novel is about survival on the underside of the Edwardian Twilight, about exploitative employment when the only safety nets are charity, workhouse, and grave. Following the fortunes of a group of painters and decorators and their families, and the attempts to rouse their political will by the Socialist visionary Frank Owen, the book is both a highly entertaining story and a passionate appeal for a fairer way of life.

what practical political appeal can a tale of isolated socialists, fighting for a co-operative commonwealth , possibly have today? Dave Harker describes Tressell's life, puts his book in its historical context, and traces its success over the past 90-odd years. This is the story of the left in Britain , from the Socialist Federation toNew Labour.

Back up your research. Cruzer Micro is an incredibly small USB Flash Drive (UFD) that connects to a computer's USB port. This 2GB version allows you to save masses of documents, pictures, scans etc.

Box Contents: SanDisk Cruzer Micro 1GB; Cruzer Micro Skins (with clear skin and cap); 2 additional coloured skins w/matching caps; Lanyard; Quick Start Guide