Overview

The author of this book attempts to reconcile academic research into aspects of labour history with the inherited knowledge of the patriotism and latent conservatism of many working class families. It addresses an issue which continues to puzzle researchers into working class life in the twentieth century: the contradiction of farmworkers who were active trade unionists volunteering to fight in World War I for a cause about which they knew little. The book also contends that the extraordinary growth of rural radicalism at the end of that war was diffused by popular conservatism. This ""local patriotism"" was itself a product of wartime militarism, and linked old parochialism with a new sense of loyalty to country and to the nation, specifically England.

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9780754602972

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Reviews

'New discoveries, based on truly original research...' Michael Foot's choice for Book of the Year 2001, The Observer Review 'There is a lot produced on farmworkers unions but so little on the immediate post-war period around 1918-1921 that this is a really useful addition.' Trade Union Badge Collectors News '... a most useful addition to the literature on agricultural communities and trade unionism... A scholarly but absorbing book, to the considerable credit of Nick Mansfield... I recommend it to all who are interested in the history of workers' conditions and trade union struggle in the countryside.' The Landworker 'Mansfield's well-referenced study...offers a detailed insight into rural society in general, and farmworkers and their organisation in particular, at a time of great change and is a pioneering work in areas of rural culture which are often ill-recorded and are now largely beyond the recall of fresh oral record... it will be welcomed and used by social and political historians and all those interested in the cultural life of rural communities.' Folk Life '... clear, cogent and convincing... we still need more studies like this...' EHR '... gives a valuable insight... entertaining with its many anecdotes and quotes from workers of that period.' North West labour History Journal '... opens up a whole series of questions about political culture in Britain and about the values of Englishness and rural society... Mansfield has done an excellent job...' International Review of Social History '... an interesting micro-history [...] that will be of great value to a much wider audience... useful and highly informative... an excellent resource for historians on a variety of levels: as regional history, as micro-study and as a general introduction to rural life in the early twentieth century.' Labour History Review '... fine, illuminating, and very useful book. This is a complicated and interesting book.' Agricultural History Review

'New discoveries, based on truly original research...' Michael Foot's choice for Book of the Year 2001, The Observer Review 'There is a lot produced on farmworkers unions but so little on the immediate post-war period around 1918-1921 that this is a really useful addition.' Trade Union Badge Collectors News '... a most useful addition to the literature on agricultural communities and trade unionism.... A scholarly but absorbing book, to the considerable credit of Nick Mansfield... I recommend it to all who are interested in the history of workers' conditions and trade union struggle in the countryside.' The Landworker 'Mansfield's well-referenced study...offers a detailed insight into rural society in general, and farmworkers and their organisation in particular, at a time of great change and is a pioneering work in areas of rural culture which are often ill-recorded and are now largely beyond the recall of fresh oral record.... it will be welcomed and used by social and political historians and all those interested in the cultural life of rural communities.' Folk Life '... clear, cogent and convincing... we still need more studies like this...' EHR '... gives a valuable insight... entertaining with its many anecdotes and quotes from workers of that period.' North West labour History Journal '... opens up a whole series of questions about political culture in Britain and about the values of Englishness and rural society... Mansfield has done an excellent job...' International Review of Social History '... an interesting micro-history [...] that will be of great value to a much wider audience... useful and highly informative... an excellent resource for historians on a variety of levels: as regional history, as micro-study and as a general introduction to rural life in the early twentieth century.' Labour History Review '... fine, illuminating, and very useful book.. This is a complicated and interesting book.' Agricultural History Review

Author Information

Nicholas Mansfield, University of Central Lancashire, and Director National Museum of Labour History, UK

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