A history of work in Britain, 1880-1950 / Arthur J. McIvor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McIvor, Arthur.

Series:

Social history in perspective

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor--Great Britain--History.

Labor.

Industrial sociology--Great Britain--History.

Industrial sociology.

Labor movement--Great Britain--History.

Labor movement.

Industrial management--Great Britain--History.

Industrial management.

Industrial safety--Great Britain--History.

Industrial safety.

Women--Employment--Great Britain--History.

Women.

Women--Employment.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xii, 276 pages : maps ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave, 2001.

Summary:

A History of Work in Britain, 1880-1950 analyses the rich mosaic of experience in the British workplace and discusses the continuities and changes between the mid-Victorian period and 1950. McIvor engages with the main arguments and theories that have dominated this contentious area, critically examining the veracity of Marxist conceptualisations of deskilling, degradation and the subordination of labour. Other themes taken up are the changing shape of the labour force, the role of the unions, interactions between work and health, the changing role of the state in the workplace and gender relations at work.

Work was of central importance in people's lives before 1950. The meaning and significance of work extended beyond the material rewards of labour (which directly determined standards of living and health), because work provided an identity, a purpose and dictated status in the community. The workplace also constituted an arena in which relationships were forged, attitudes shaped and, increasingly, where collective solidarities were nurtured.

Contents:

1 The Historiography and Theorising of Work 5

2 The Changing Labour Force 26

3 The Experience of Work: Deskilling, Intensification and Alienation? 43

Skill and the Organisation of Work in Late Victorian Britain 44

Technology, Organisational Change and Deskilling 52

The Intensification of Work 66

4 Exercising Control: Employers and the Management of Labour 79

Exerting the Right to Manage in Late Victorian Britain 80

Management Structures and Employers' Strategies, 1880-1914 85

Towards Rationalisation, Taylorism and Real Subordination of Labour, 1914-50 93

5 Work Conditions, Occupation and Health 111

Occupational Health and Safety before World War One 113

The Impact of Economic Recession and War, 1914-50 130

6 Regulating Work: the Role of the State 148

The State and the Workplace, c. 1880 151

Work, Industrial Relations and the Labour Market, c. 1880-1914 154

Countervailing Tendencies: the Wars and the Depression 158

7 Women, Gender Relations and Inequalities at Work 174

Gender Relations at Work in Late Victorian Britain 175

Unpaid Work: Home and Family 181

Paid Employment 184

8 Trade Unions, Work and Politics 200

The Incubation, Development and Limits of Trade Unionism 201

Democratising Work? The Role and Functions of Trade Unions 213

Work, Class and Politics 231

9 Conclusion: Labour Transformed? 241.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-264) and index.

ISBN:

0333596161

0312235437

OCLC:

43913169