The core of this full length history is the momentous period from the General Strike of 1926 to the nationalization of the mines in January 1947 ... To the treatment of the post Second World War period the authors have added a final chapter assessing the achievements and the problems of the nationalized industry, as well as the role of the miners in the upsurge of industrial militancy that characterized the sixties and seventies." In South Wales Miners' Federation became the South Wales area of the NUM.

First published in 1967, South Wales Miners: Glowyr de Cymru is a vivid portrayal of contending personalities in the generation before the first world war, often set forth in their own words. Outstanding amongst them are the founder of the Labour Party., Keir Hardie and the young Liberal politician Winston Churchill whose successive ministerial duties brought him into close relation with the miners of South Wales. Out of the almost insurrectionary situation of 1910 in Glamorgan there has come a widespread belief that Churchill was responsible for the shooting down of Welsh miners and that Tonypandy in the Rhondda was once a scene of massacre. In destroying this picturesque myth, Page Arnot uncovers an array of facts that are stranger than this long-lived fiction and also richer in their interplay of personalities. Here, soberly, recorded, are the facts that could make a chronicle play with dramatis personae ranging from Monarch and Minister to mineowners and working miners who daily lives create the tensions of the time. Their national characteristics and their exceptional conditions, at home or in chapel, underground or on the surface, form one side of the picture, of which the other is furnished by the entrenched position of the associated coal owners. This book will be of interest to students of history, economics and labour studies.

A political history of the south Wales miners, their industry and society, in a tumultuous period of crisis and struggle.

First published in 1967, South Wales Miners: Glowyr de Cymru is a vivid portrayal of contending personalities in the generation before the first world war, often set forth in their own words. Outstanding amongst them are the founder of the Labour Party., Keir Hardie and the young Liberal politician Winston Churchill whose successive ministerial duties brought him into close relation with the miners of South Wales. Out of the almost insurrectionary situation of 1910 in Glamorgan there has come a widespread belief that Churchill was responsible for the shooting down of Welsh miners and that Tonypandy in the Rhondda was once a scene of massacre. In destroying this picturesque myth, Page Arnot uncovers an array of facts that are stranger than this long-lived fiction and also richer in their interplay of personalities. Here, soberly, recorded, are the facts that could make a chronicle play with dramatis personae ranging from Monarch and Minister to mineowners and working miners who daily lives create the tensions of the time. Their national characteristics and their exceptional conditions, at home or in chapel, underground or on the surface, form one side of the picture, of which the other is furnished by the entrenched position of the associated coal owners. This book will be of interest to students of history, economics and labour studies.

This is the final volume in the Historical Directory of Trade Unions series. It provides a comprehensive list of all British unions that operated within the building, construction, chemical, dock, maritime, engineering, government, mining, quarry, and shipbuilding industries.

There can be few statesmen whose lives and careers have received as much investigation and literary attention as Winston Churchill. Relatively little however has appeared which deals specifically or holistically with his first senior ministerial role; that of Secretary of State for the Home Office. This may be due to the fact that, of the three Great Offices of State which he was to occupy over the course of his long political life, his tenure as Home Secretary was the briefest. The Liberal Government, of which he was a senior figure, had been elected in 1906 to put in place social and political reform. Though Churchill was at the forefront of these matters, his responsibility for domestic affairs led to him facing other, major, challenges departmentally; this was a time of substantial commotion on the social front, with widespread industrial and civil strife. Even given that ‘Home Secretaries never do have an easy time’, his period in office was thus marked by a huge degree of political and social turbulence. The terms ‘Tonypandy’ and ‘Peter the Painter’ perhaps spring most readily to mind. Rather less known is his involvement in one of the burning issues of the time, female suffrage, and his portrayal as ‘the prisoners’ friend’ in terms of penal reform. Aged 33 on appointment, and the youngest Home Secretary since 1830, he became empowered to wield the considerable executive authority inherent in the role of one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and he certainly did not shrink from doing so. There were of course commensurate responsibilities, and how he shouldered them is worth examination.