British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics - 1945-1979

The first volume in this two-volume set focuses on the years between Attlee and Wilson, which, with their transition from austerity to affluence, are sometimes stereotyped as halcyon days of industrial peace, but also a time of lost opportunity, when real opportunities to reform industrial relations and restructure trade unionism were squandered.

The collection of essays aims to remedy the dearth of research on the trade unionism of the immediate post-war years and to go behind the facade and puncture myths. Written by authors from a range of disciplines, it focuses on the politics of trade unionism - not only unions' relations with political parties and the stte but also on the politics of workplace conflict and industrial action.

It covers conventional issues such as relations between the unions and the Labour Party; but also discusses the diverse, neglected topics such as media coverage, union education, the Cold War and communism, and the political forces forging the discipline of industrial relations.

The book's analysis of major strikes suggests that an understanding of the developing militancy of the 1950s is essential to understanding the trade unionism of the 1960s and 1970s. The second volume covers the years 1964-79, which constitute a turbulent period in labour history and the high tide of trade unionism in 20th-century Britain.

This volume of essays from contributors from varied disciplines subjects these years to historical scrutiny.

Centred on a conception of industrial politics which sees what happened at the grassroots as being as vital as what happened in Parliament and Congress House, it takes a fresh look at well-rehearsed themes and re-examines the policies of the Labour and Conservative Parties.

It also provides for analysis of neglected topics such as the role of the Communist, Trotskyist and rank-and-file organizations, as well as of issues of class, gender and ethnicity.

Together the volumes offer a history of the 20th-century labour movement as a whole.