Nine days in May : the General Strike of 1926 / Jonathan Schneer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schneer, Jonathan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

General Strike, Great Britain, 1926.

Working class--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Working class.

Physical Description:

viii, 416 pages : illustrations (black and white), maps (black and white) ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

In May, 1926, nearly three million British workers downed tools to support nearly one million of their countrymen, miners whose employers meant to lengthen their working day and cut their pay. This General Strike brought the country to a grinding halt - which, according to Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, represented a threat not merely to the nation but to the parliamentary system itself. For nine days, the world's best organized working class confronted the world's most powerful, and self-confident, government. And yet the outcome was never in doubt, for Britain's most important trade-union leaders thought as Baldwin did, although they kept saying they were engaged in a wages dispute only. Really, they feared winning even more than they feared losing. In Nine Days in May, award-winning author and historian Jonathan Schneer mines hitherto untapped archival sources to explain why and how the Strike came about, why and how it was waged and countered, why and how it ended. In addition to government reports and TUC reports, he uses reports of undercover agents and spies, "special" constables sworn in for the duration of the Strike, volunteer strike-breakers, Communist agitators, trade-union leaders and rank-and-file members of trade unions; also, of course, the papers of politicians of all parties.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780192894533

0192894536

OCLC:

1528535861

Publisher Number:

CIPO000373153