Labour History

Abstract

Interest in British labour movements since the Industrial Revolution has a long history in Britain, but it was only in the 1960s that labour history became a significant element in British university historical studies. This reflected the expansion and broadening of academic history, especially the growth of social history, and the political radicalism of that decade. It met some hostility because its practitioners saw themselves as pioneers challenging traditional history and often coupled their historical work with political commitment. Labour history was also allied with the History Workshop movement to broaden involvement in historical studies. Although it has continued to grow since then, it became less fashionable after the 1970s as politics shifted to the Right, labour organizations declined, and it lost its radical edge because of feminist and post-modernist critiques. The efforts to adapt are reflected in the displacement of the term “labour history” by “people’s history”.