This is a unique archive of childrens hopes, fears, views and memories during times when political shifts affected and risked educational potential, performance and aspiration. When career prospects for girls were equally at risk in mining dominated areas it reveals how a creative counter movement in a coalfield community during the bleak days of the 1990s pit closures was strengthened and supported by a namedropping backlash of heartening support wiping out boundaries of class or political slant. The outcome then was positively motivated youngsters, with some remarkable and diverse results right up to the present day.

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 1986, this book challenges the notion that the miners’ strike of 1984-5 was ‘Scargill’s Strike’. It shows some of the ways in which the strike, though nominally directed from above, was determined from below by multitudinous and often contradictory pressures — the lodge, the village and the home. The focus is essentially logical and gives particular attention to family economy, kin networks and intergenerational solidarity. At the same time it is concerned with the mentality of the strike — its ruling fears and passions. The first-hand testimonies that comprise the book attest to the attachment to ‘traditional ways’ as well as the potency of the influences corroding them.

This title, first published in 1987, provides an authoritative account of both the science and the politics of acid rain. Chris Park places the debates surrounding acid rain in context, and examines the full implications of scientific studies and the effects of acid rain on surface waters, soils and buildings. Evidence is drawn from around the world, including an examination of the damage in Scandinavia and Germany and the effects of acid rain in the U.K. and U.S.A. A comprehensive and relevant work, this is an important guide for students of geography, environment and sustainability and energy policy.

The coal industry has always occupied a symbolic place in British economic and political life, inspiring debates and arousing passions throughout the last two centuries. This account of the economics of coal, first published in 1990, is unique in its comprehensive three-part approach. First, Ben Fine charts the ways in which the theoretical understanding of the British coal industry has changed over the past two centuries and discusses the arguments surrounding public ownership versus the privatization of the industry. In the second part, the book presents a critical assessment of the existing literature and challenges the well-established orthodoxies by close theoretical and empirical argument. Finally, attention is paid to the role of landed property and the processes of technical change. An interesting analysis of the complex relationship between industrial change and political economy and an important contribution to economics, this study will be of great value to students of the theory and history of industrial change and the British coal industry.

Originally published in 1989 Defence Industries presents a worldwide survey of defence industries. It argues that modern weapon systems and electronic warfare have led to the transition of the military-industrial enterprise into a multifaceted entity where electronics production is the key. It analyses the extent of defence industries, showing that large portions of the aerospace, shipbuilding, motor vehicle and electronics industries are devoted to defence and discusses where the defence industries are located. It examines the differences in government policies, contrasting the superpowers, with newly industrialised countries.