First published in 1975, this volume aims to direct attention at a number of aspects of the lives and occupations of village labourers in the nineteenth-century that have been little examined by historians outside of agriculture. Some of the factors examined include the labourer’s gender, whether they lived in ‘closed’ or ‘open’ villages and what they worked at during the different seasons of the year. The author examines a range of occupations that have previously been ignored as too local to show up in national statistics or too short-lived to rank as occupations at all as well as sources of ‘secondary’ income. The analysis of all of these factors in related to the seasonal cycle of field labour and harvests. The central focus is on the cottage economy and the manifold contrivances by which labouring families attempted to keep themselves afloat.

First published between 1975 and 1991, this set reissues 13 volumes that originally appeared as part of the History Workshop Series. This series of books, which grew out of the journal of the same name, advocated ‘history from below’ and examined numerous, often social, issues from the perspectives of ordinary people. In the words of founder Raphael Samuel, the aim was to turn historical research and writing into ‘a collaborative enterprise’, via public gatherings outside of a traditional academic setting, that could be used to support activism and social justice as well as informing politics. Some of the topics examined in the set include: mineral workers, rural radicalism, and the lives and occupations of villagers in the nineteenth century; working class association; the development of left-wing workers theatre and the changing attitudes to mass culture across the twentieth century; the changing fortunes of the East End at the turn of the century; the position of women from the nineteenth century to the present; the miners’ strike of 1984-5; the social and political images of late-twentieth century London; and a three volume analysis of the myriad facets of English patriotism. This set will be of interest to students of history, sociology, gender and politics.

First published in 1989, this is the second of three volumes exploring the changing notions of patriotism in British life from the thirteenth century to the late twentieth century and constitutes an attempt to come to terms with the power of the national idea through a historically informed critique. This volume examines how national identity has competed with alternative, more personal forms of belonging — such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism and Nonconformism — as well looking at femininity in relation to the state. Contemporary British society’s capacity to create outsiders is discussed and the introductory essay shows how this may shape our misunderstanding of earlier phases of national development.

First published in 1985, this book presents the first detailed account of the relationship between the farmworkers, trades unionism, and political and social radicalism. Rural radicalism, one of the most important new features of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century politics, was particularly strong in Norfolk and as such provides the focus for this study. The author shows the how relationship between ‘master and man’ and ‘man’ and ‘work’ was changing in the period from the 1870s to the 1920s — ending with the great strike of 1923. The main themes are the shifts from religion to politics, from Liberalism to Labour, and in more general terms from local to national consciousness. The book shows men at work and the ways in which politics meshed — or failed to mesh — together. Based on detailed local research and on many hours of recorded interviews, it enables the voice of the labourer to be heard, and a real sense of hope, fear and aspiration to come through.

First published in 1981, this book brings together different types of work by numerous fragmented groups in the field of Marxist history and puts them in dialogue with each other. It takes stock of then recent work, explores the main new lines, and looks at the political and ideological circumstances shaping the direction of historical work, past and present. The scope of the book is international with contributions on African history, fascism and anti-fascism, French labour history, and the transition from feudalism to capitalism. It also incorporates feminist history and gives attention to some of the leading questions raised for social history by the women’s movement.

In Rethinking German History, first published in 1987, Richard J. Evans argues for a social-historical approach to the German past that pays equal attention to objective social structures and subjective values and experiences. If German history has been seen as an exception to the ‘normal’ development of Western society, this is not least because historians have until recently largely failed to look beyond the world of high politics, institutions, organizations and ideologies to broader historical problems of German society and German mentalities. By applying and adapting approaches learned from French and British social history as they have been developed over the last quarter of a century, it is possible to achieve a rethinking of German history which does away with many of the textbook myths that have encrusted the historiogrpahy of Germany for so long. This book will be valuable for students of German history and politics, and brings together essays widely used in teaching. Its broad coverage of social history will also be useful to all those interested in contemporary historiography or the comparative study of European history.

In The State, The Family and Education, first published in 1980, Miriam David provides an entirely new analysis of the relationship of the State to the family and education. David shows how the State, through its educational policies, regulates family relationships with, and within, schools. This book provides a welcome analysis of educational policy from a socialist-feminist perspective, re-examining the ways in which women as parents, teachers and pupils are involved in the education system. This book will be of interests to students of education.

In the search for the causes of the First World War and the origins of Hitler’s ‘Third Reich’, the attention of historians has turned increasingly towards the development of German society under Kaiser Wilhelm II. These ten essays, first published in 1978, introduced interpretations of Wilhelmine Germany to an English-speaking audience and contributed towards the discussion of these interpretations that were taking place amongst German historians. This book is ideal for student of history, particularly German history.

Industrial discipline in mining, quarrying, brickmaking and other classes of mineral work was very different to that in nineteenth-century factories and mills. First published in 1977, this book deals with mineral workers of every class and discusses the peculiarities and common features of their work. It offers three detailed local studies: pit life in County Durham, slate quarrying in North Wales, and saltworkers in Cheshire alongside an introductory section on mineral workers in general. The author is concerned with the family and community setting; the social relationships at the point of production itself; job control and trade unionism; and with material culture, wages and earnings.

First published in 1985, this collection of essays deals with processes of population movement and how they have operated over time. It is also about people: Melanesian’s who number some five million and inhabit the region stretching from the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya to the Independent State of Fiji. Standard work on Movement in third world societies has emphasized migration, involving a shift in residence from one domicile to another, at the expense of the interchange of people between diverse places and different circumstances. Many moves, as from villages and towns, are circulatory: they begin at, go away from, but ultimately end in the same dwelling place and community. This book focuses on the full range of territorial mobility, especially circulation, and its meanings for the people involved. This volume brings together indigenous scholars, foreign field researchers, and international authorities from many of the social sciences: anthropology, demography, economics, geography and sociology. It presents a set of multicultural statements about the mobility of particular peoples within a region of the third world. This collection about specifically Melanesian issues aims to stimulate broader visions among population scholars, and it underlines the pressing need for more theoretical and empirical work on a volatile, yet neglected, category of population movement.