Abstract
THE early 1870s can be represented as something of a false dawn for trade unionism in the United Kingdom. The legal battles were fought and apparently won in 1871 and 1875, and during the economic boom of the period total trade union membership expanded at a rapid rate.
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V. L. Allen, The Sociology of Industrial Relations (1971). A collection of essays, many of which deal with the history of trade unionism in Britain. A large section of the volume is devoted to the history of the T.U.C., and the essay on the reorganisation of 1918–27 is particularly useful.
R. P. Arnot, The Miners, vol. 1 (1949). This and subsequent volumes constitute the standard history of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain.
R. P. Arnot, South Wales Miners (1967). One of a number of regional studies of mining unionism — of particular importance in view of developments in South Wales in the period.
P. S. Bagwell, The Railwaymen (1963). One of the best studies of unionism in an individual industry.
P. S. Bagwell, ‘The Triple Industrial Alliance, 1913–22’, in Asa Briggs and John Saville (eds), Essays in Labour History 1886–1923 (1971). The essay discusses the factors which led to the formation of the Alliance, its record, and the reasons for its failure.
G. S. Bain, The Growth of White-Collar Unionism (Oxford, 1970). An analysis of the process of union growth among white collar workers in Britain. Bain stresses the importance of three factors: employment concentration, employer recognition and government action to promote recognition.
G. S. Bain, D. Coates and V. Ellis, Social Stratification and Trade Unionism (1973). A critical survey of the literature concerned with the interplay of social stratification and trade unionism. An extremely useful book.
F. Bealey and H. Pelling, Labour and Politics, 1900–1906 (1958). Contains a discussion of Taff Vale and its political consequences.
J. D. M. Bell, Industrial Unionism: A Critical Analysis (1949). A useful study of union structure, which is strongly critical of the case for ‘organisation by industry’.
A. Blum, ‘Why Unions Grow’, Labour History, ix, 1 (Winter 1968). A critical survey of various theories of union growth. Although primarily concerned with the American experience, the article has a more general application.
Asa Briggs, ‘Introduction’, in Briggs and Saville (eds), Essays in Labour History 1886–1923 (1971).
R. Brown, Waterfront Organisation in Hull 1870–1900 (Hull, 1972). As much a study of the local labour movement as of waterfront unionism, but valuable none the less.
A. Bullock, The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin, vol 1 (1960). Much more than a biography, this is one of the best studies of the labour movement between the wars.
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R. Charles, The Development of Industrial Relations in Britain 1911–1939 (1973). Somewhat misleadingly titled, this work deals with some major landmarks in the evolution of collective bargaining — the Industrial Council of 1911, the Whitley scheme, the 1919 Industrial Conference, and the Mond-Turner talks. Contains much useful information and some valuable insights, but the book suffers from the somewhat rigid and cumbersome way in which the author has structured his material.
Lord Citrine, Men and Work (1964). An autobiography, covering Citrine’s career up to 1939. Contains much of interest.
H. A. Clegg, ‘Some Consequences of the General Strike’, Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society (January 1954). One of the few serious attempts to assess the significance of the General Strike.
H. A. Clegg, ‘The Webbs as Historians of Trade Unionism 1874–1894’, Labour History Society Bulletin, no. 4 (Spring 1962). Part of a symposium, to which V. L. Allen and A. E. Musson also contributed.
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G. D. H. Cole, ‘Some Notes on British Trade Unionism in the Third Quarter of the Nineteenth Century’, International Review for Social History, ii (1937), reprinted in E. M. Carus-Wilson (ed.), Essays in Economic History, vol. iii (1962).
G. D. H. Cole, A Short History of the British Working Class Movement (1948 edn).
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G. Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England (paperback edn, New York, 1961).
R. Davidson, ‘War-Time Labour Policy 1914–1916: A Re-Appraisal’, Journal of Scottish Labour History Society, xiii (1974).
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H. V. Emy, Liberals, Radicals and Social Politics, 1892–1914 (1973).
A. Flanders, ‘Trade Unions and Politics’, in Flanders, Management and Unions (1970). An important essay which analyses the nature of trade union political behaviour. A number of other essays in this volume are of interest to the labour historian.
A. Fox, A History of the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives (Oxford, 1958). One of the best individual union histories.
R. Harrison, ‘The War Emergency Workers’ National Committee, 1914–1920’, in Briggs and Saville (eds), Essays in Labour History 1886–1923 (1971).
J. Hinton, The First Shop Stewards’ Movement (1973). The focus of interest in this study is the contribution of the Movement to the development of revolutionary theory.
E. J. Hobsbawm, Labouring Men (1964). A most valuable collection of essays on labour history — an indispensable source for the study of ‘new unionism’.
E. J. Hobsbawm, ‘Trade Union History’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., xx, 2 (August 1967). An essay in review of Clegg et al. [19], that criticises the basic assumptions upon which the work is based. A good reflection of the ideological divisions amongst labour historians.
R. Hyman, The Workers’ Union (Oxford, 1971). A most stimulating study of a very important, but much neglected, union.
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E. M. Kassalow, Trade Unions and Industrial Relations: An International Comparison (New York, 1969). A survey of trade unionism and industrial relations in Western Europe and America. A useful introduction to comparative labour history.
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K. G. Knowles, Strikes: A Study in Industrial Conflict (Oxford, 1952). The classic study of the subject.
J. Lovell, Stevedores and Dockers (1969). A study of waterside unionism in London, 1870–1914.
J. Lovell and B. C Roberts, A Short History of the T.U.C. (1968). A fuller account of the T.U.C. in the period up to 1921 is to be found in B. C. Roberts, The Trades Union Congress, 1868–1921 (1958).
R. W. Lyman, First Labour Government, 1924 (1957). A valuable study, which includes an account of the government’s relations with the unions.
G. W. McDonald and H. F. Gospel, ‘The Mond-Turner Talks, 1927–1933: A Study in Industrial Co-operation’, Historical Journal, xvi, 4 (December 1973). The most complete account of the talks yet published.
H. A. Marquand (ed.), Organised Labour in Four Continents (1939). The section on Britain provides a good general history of trade unionism between the wars.
A. Marsh, Industrial Relations in Engineering (Oxford, 1965). See also, J. B. Jefferys, The Story of the Engineers (1945) — the standard union history.
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A. Marwick, ‘The Impact of the First World War on British Society’, Journal of Contemporary History, iii (1968).
A. Mason, ‘The Government and the General Strike, 1926’, International Review of Social History, xiv (1969). Mason makes use of the Cabinet and Departmental records which became available in 1967.
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H. Pelling, ‘The Knights of Labour in Britain, 1880–1901’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., ix (1956).
H. Pelling, America and the British Left (1956). An analysis of the ways in which popular ideas about American society influenced the attitudes and behaviour of the British labour movement. An unusual and most stimulating study.
H. Pelling, The Origins of the Labour Party 1880–1900 (Oxford, 1965 edn). The standard work on the subject.
H. Pelling, A History of British Trade Unionism (1963). The best short history.
H. Pelling, Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (1968). This contains a number of essays dealing with labour history, some of which are extremely controversial in nature. None the less, this is a book no labour history reading list should be without.
S. Perlman, A Theory of the Labor Movement (New York, 1928). An important study of the nature of trade union behaviour, written by an American, but drawing upon the experience of a number of countries, including Britain. Critical of the Webbs and of other labour historians of the socialist school.
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G. A. Phillips, ‘The Triple Industrial Alliance in 1914’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., xxiv, 1 (February 1971). A well executed assault on the idea that the formation of the Triple Alliance threatened to precipitate a 1914 general strike.
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J. H. Porter, ‘Wage Bargaining under Conciliation Agreements, 1860–1914’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., xxiii, 3 (December 1970).
B. Pribicevic, The Shop Stewards’ Movement and Workers’ Control, 1910–1922 (Oxford, 1959). An analysis of the various ideological ingredients that went to the making of the workers’ control movement. Contains an interesting Foreword by G. D. H. Cole.
I. Richter, Political Purpose in Trade Unions (1973). An application of Perlman’s theory to a study of the political behaviour of British trade unions. A lively, if controversial, work.
J. Saville, ‘Trade Unions and Free Labour: the Background to the Taff Vale Decision’, in Asa Briggs and J. Saville (eds), Essays in Labour History (1960). An analysis of the employers’ counter-attack of the 1890s.
S. B. Saul, The Myth of the Great Depression 1873–1896 (1969).
R. Skidelsky, Politicians and the Slump (1967). A study of the second Labour government.
E. L. Taplin, Liverpool Dockers and Seamen 1870–1890 (Hull, 1974). A local study which adds to our knowledge of the unionism of the ‘unskilled’ pre-1889.
H. A. Turner, Trade Union Growth, Structure and Policy (1962). One of the most important works on British trade unionism. Although primarily a study of the development of the cotton unions, Turner’s analysis is of relevance to unionism in general.
S. and B. Webb, The History of Trade Unionism (1920 edn).
S. and B. Webb, Industrial Democracy (1920 edn). The two books by the Webbs are of course the great classics of British labour history. Although still of great value and interest they are now seriously dated, and more recent studies have greatly modified the Webbs’ work.
Addendum to the Bibliography
Asa Briggs and John Saville (eds), Essays in Labour History, 1918–39 (London, 1977).
Alan Fox, History and Heritage: The Social Origins of the British Industrial Relations System (London, 1985).
G. R. Littler, The Development of the Labour Processes in Capitalist Societies (London, 1982).
Rodney Lowe, Adjusting to Democracy: The Ministry of Labour 1916–39 (Oxford, 1986).
R. M. Martin, TUC: The Growth of a Pressure Group 1868–1976 (Oxford, 1980).
Ian McLean, The Legend of Red Clydeside (Edinburgh, 1983).
Wolfgang Mommsen and H.-G. Husung (eds), The Development of Trade Unionism in Great Britain and Germany, 1880–1914 (London, 1985).
Charles More, Skill and the English Working Class, 1970–1914 (London, 1980).
Margaret Morris, The General Strike (Harmondsworth, 1976).
G. A. Phillips, The General Strike 1926 (London, 1976).
Richard Price, Masters, Unions and Men: Work Control in Building and the Rise of Labour 1830–1914 (Cambridge, 1980).
Alastair Reid, ‘Dilution, Trade Unionism and the State in Britain during the First World War’, in Steven Tolliday and Jonathan Zcitlin (eds), Shop Floor Bargaining and the State (Cambridge, 1985).
Patrick Renshaw, The General Strike (London, 1975).
Jonathan Schneer, Ben Tillett (London, 1982).
J. Skelly (ed.), The General Strike 1926 (London, 1976).
Jonathan Zcitlin, ‘From Labour History to the History of Industrial Relations’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., xl (1987).
Jonathan Zcitlin, ‘The Labour Strategies of British Engineering Employers, 1890–1922’, in H. F. Gospel and C. R. Littler (eds), Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations (London, 1983).
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© 1977 The Economic History Society
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Lovell, J. (1977). British Trade Unions 1875–1933. In: Clarkson, L.A. (eds) British Trade Union and Labour History A Compendium. Studies in Economic and Social History. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10939-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10939-5_2
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