Labour history is a fertile area of historical study, stimulating wide-ranging interest, debate and research within political, social and cultural history as well as cognate social science disciplines. It is a pleasure to introduce the first book to appear from Liverpool University Press in the Studies in Labour History series, previously published by Ashgate Publishing since 1998 under the general editorship of Professor Chris Wrigley, University of Nottingham, and later Professor Malcolm Chase, University of Leeds. The series provides studies arising from the latest research in labour history as well as reassessments of broad themes in the field. Most contributions are single-authored by leading experts on their topic but there are also volumes of essays coherently focussed on central issues, usually emerging from conferences organised by the Society for the Study of Labour History, which was established in 1960. While maintaining the series’ commitment to the highest standards of scholarship, every author approaches their task with the needs of both specialist and non-specialist readerships in mind.

When the series was first launched, labour history was emerging, re-invigorated, from a period of considerable introspection and external criticism. The assumptions and ideologies underpinning much earlier work in the field had been challenged by postmodernist, anti-Marxist and, especially, feminist critiques. There was also some feeling, not always justified in the light of developments in labour historiography from the 1970s, that it had often emphasised institutional treatments of organised labour at the expense of histories of work and of workers’ social relations beyond the workplace ’ especially those concerning gender, family and ethnicity. The Society for the Study of Labour History was concerned to consolidate and build upon this process of review and renewal through the publication of more substantial works than its journal Labour History Review (now also published by Liverpool University Press) could accommodate. The series also allowed the Society to emphasise that, although it was primarily a British body, its focus and remit extended to international, transnational and comparative perspectives.

The extent to which labour history was narrowly institutionalised or neglected wider social relations has been exaggerated. Nevertheless, the field continues to face epistemological, methodological and organisational challenges in the twenty-first century which the series seeks to confront and engage with.