First published in 2006. This study looks at a time when Victorian Britain was a time for self-doubt. There was an increasing fear that the 'place in the sun' that had so long been hers was being shadowed by the rising powers of Germany and the United States of America. Doubts arouse about her economic strength, her military prowess, even the viability of the two-party system. The South African War of 1899-1902 served for a time as the focus for all the fears that many Britons had about their country's future. The patriotism it engendered was exaggerated by the early military failures to resolve the problem of the troublesome Boers. The focus of the text is on working-class attitudes and reactions to the Boer War 1899-1902.

History is not made by kings, politicians, or a few rich individuals--it is made by all of us. From the temples of ancient Egypt to spacecraft orbiting Earth, workers and ordinary people everywhere have walked out, sat down, risen up, and fought back against exploitation, discrimination, colonization, and oppression. Working Class History presents a distinct selection of people's history through hundreds of "on this day in history" anniversaries that are as diverse and international as the working class itself. Women, young people, people of color, workers, migrants, indigenous people, LGBTQ people, disabled people, older people, the unemployed, home workers, and every other part of the working class have organized and taken action that has shaped our world, and improvements in living and working conditions have been won only by years of violent conflict and sacrifice. These everyday acts of resistance and rebellion highlight just some of those who have struggled for a better world and provide lessons and inspiration for those of us fighting in the present. Going day by day, this book paints a picture of how and why the world came to be as it is, how some have tried to change it, and the lengths to which the rich and powerful have gone to maintain and increase their wealth and influence.

In recent years, imperial history has experienced a newfound vigour, dynamism and diversity. There has been an explosion of new work in the field, which has been driven into even greater prominence by contemporary world events. However, this resurgence has brought with it disputes between those who are labelled as exponents of a ‘new imperial history’ and those who can, by default, be termed old imperial historians. This collection not only gathers together some of the most important, influential and controversial work which has come to be labelled ‘new imperial history’, but also presents key examples of innovative recent writing across the broader fields of imperial and colonial studies. This book is the perfect companion for any student interested in empires and global history.

In this wholly original and brilliantly argued book, the author shows that Britons have indeed been preoccupied with class, but in ways that are invariably ignorant and confused.

Blood, Sweat, and Toil is the first scholarly history of the British working class in the Second World War. It integrates social, political, and labour history, and reflects the most recent scholarship and debates on social class, gender, and the forging of identities. Geoffrey Field examines the war's impact on workers in the varied contexts of the family, military service, the workplace, local communities, and the nation. Extensively researched, using official documents, diaries and letters, the records of trade unions and numerous other institutions, Blood, Sweat, and Toil traces the rapid growth of trade unionism, joint consultation, and strike actions in the war years. It also analyses the mobilization of women into factories and the uniformed services and the lives of men conscripted into the army, showing how these experiences shaped their aspirations and their social and political attitudes. Previous studies of the Home Front have analysed the lives of civilians, but they have neglected the importance of social class in defining popular experience and its centrality in public attitudes, official policy, and the politics of the war years. Contrary to accounts that view the war as eroding class divisions and creating a new sense of social unity in Britain, Field argues that the 1940s was a crucial decade in which the deeply fragmented working class of the interwar decades was 'remade', achieving new collective status, power, and solidarity. Employing a contingent, non-teleological conception of class identity and indicating the plural and shifting mix of factors that contributed to workers' social consciousness, he criticizes recent revisionist scholarship that has downplayed the significance of class in British society.

This book examines what motivated the ordinary British man to go to France in 1914, especially in the early years when Britain relied on the voluntary system to fill the ranks.

Written by specialists from various fields, this edited volume is the first systematic investigation of the impact of imperialism on twentieth-century Britain. The contributors explore different aspects of Britain's imperial experience as the empire weathered the storms of the two world wars, was subsequently dismantled, and then apparently was gone. How widely was the empire's presence felt in British culture and society? What was the place of imperial questions in British party politics? Was Britain's status as a global power enhanced or underpinned by the existence of its empire? What was the relation of Britain's empire to national identities within the United Kingdom? The chapters range widely from social attitudes to empire and the place of the colonies in the public imagination, to the implications of imperialism for demography, trade, party politics and political culture, government and foreign policy, the churches and civil society, and the armed forces. The volume also addresses the fascinating yet complex question of how, after the formal end of empire, the colonial past has continued to impinge upon our post-colonial present, as contributors reflect upon the diverse ways in which the legacies of empire are interpreted and debated in Britain today.