REVIEW ARTICLES

F R O M L A B O U R H I S T O R Y T O S O C I A L H I S T O R Y ?

The volume edited by Professors Flinn and Smout brings together twelve well known essays.’ It is ironical that the editors should have performed this task for the Economic History Society. On the one hand it is true that social history has grown up beneath the protective shade of economic history; on the other, the volume itself suggests that social history has, indeed, ‘grown up’ and that the traditional relationship is being maintained by administrative rather than intellectual means. Thus, Neil Smelser on the industrial revolution and the British working-class family discloses both the rewards and the costs of treating social history as if it could be the sociology of the past. The point can be understood by asking what sort of economic history could have been written around 1890 if economic history had been regarded as the ‘economies of the past’? In the third essay Edward Thompson discusses time, work- discipline and industrial capitalism in a way which suggests that anthropology might well be substituted for economics or sociology as a ‘parent’ discipline. In the introductory essay, Eric Hobsbawm offers a prospect to social his- torians which makes their subject essentially interdisciplinary: more like alternative history than a mere territory within History properly so-called. Yet for all its ambition, erudition, and brilliance Hobsbawm’s essay does not quite live up to its magisterial tone: he draws back before the grand question- is social history an area or a mode?

Taken as a whole the volume confirms that British social history is still- despite itself-anchored in labour history. Coats is represented by his piece on ‘Changing Attitudes to Labour in the Mid-Eighteenth Century’: Blaug by his ‘Myth of the Old Poor Law’. Briggs discusses the language of class, with special reference to the working classes, and John Foster is equally concerned with relating the theory and the history of the ‘proletariat’ in his piece on nineteenth-century towns. For the most part the narrow insti- tutional style in Labour History is ignored, although Saville’s admirable ‘Trade Unions and Free Labour’ might be taken as representative of it. Similarly, the ideologically engaged quality of much traditional labour history is missing-although Jenifer Hart’s devastating assault upon the ‘Tory Interpretation of History’ is deservedly included. But the old myth according to which social history is a synonym for labour history is not sub- jected to a serious challenge. In short, there is a marked contrast between Hobsbawm’s ambitious scheme for a new social history, which leads the charge, and the relatively hesitant and halting performance of those who are made to bring up the rear. The editors remark: ‘We have neither of us much doubt that our successors in the next generation, if commissioned to do a similar task for the Economic History Society, will want to print a totally different selection of articles.’ This expectation seems to be well justified in some respects and not at all in others. The ‘next generation’ will be less insular (the present collection is fearfully ‘British’) and less limited in its time-scale ‘ Essays in Social History. Edited by M. W. Flinn and T. C . Smout. Oxford: Clarendon

Press. 1974. xiii I 289 pp. f6.00 cloth; 22.50 paperback. 236

FROM LABOUR HISTORY TO SOCIAL HISTORY ? 237 (nothing before the eighteenth century); but it is a mistake to imagine that social historians will wait upon the Economic History Society before there is a second collection. One of the results of the formation of a Social History Society-an event which cannot be much longer delayed-will be a much more direct interrogation of economic and political historians than this volume allows. Thus, the way in which social history may disclose the limi- tations of econometric history or of political history written upon the as- sumptions of haute politique remain to be acknowledged. Moreover, if the prophets of gloom are anywhere near the mark, the next collection will be far more original than this one. The British economy is in no shape to afford such a repetitious work. The book includes nothing which is not easily avail- able in the most mediocre library.

Yet the hard fact remains that Essays in Social History is easily the most important book under discussion in this review. If it stays closer to labour history than its editors care to admit, it does try to escape from narrow insti- tutional confines and widens the discussion by reaching out to the experience of the unorganized working people and to the attitudes towards them dis- played by other social classes. Dr. Fraser’s2 book is not going to make any- body tear up his lecture notes, but he certainly deserves to be added to every reading list on mid-Victorian labour. His contribution is essentially one of learned consolidation of ground which has already been won, rather than a path-breaking achievement. Considered as such, his work is indispensable. Moreover, he shows more consciousness of the importance of relating the history of organized labour to that of other social formations and to the life of the unorganized than was usual ten years ago. He has supplied us with a careful, meticulously researched and thoroughly responsible book.

Professor BagwelP has also furnished us with a book which is of first-class usefulness from a pedagogic point of view. For once the publisher’s blurb is fully justified: ‘As a synoptic monograph and bibliography, this book will prove invaluable to the student in directing his research and evaluating his sources. Contemporary opinion has been moulded by the struggles of the past, and this readable study will be no less useful a guide to those engaged in the continuing confrontations of industry.’ The first two-thirds of the volume consists of a ‘Commentary’, the last third of extracts from the key documents relating to it-all of them parliamentary papers. Bagwell has made a dis- cerning selection from the Reports of Select Committees, Royal Commissions and Reports to the Board of Tradewhich allow him to reflect upon the history of trade unionism: the development of arbitration and conciliation : truck : the sweating system : co-operation and profit-sharing: employers’ liability and unemployment.

It would be easy to suggest additional topics and sources. For example, those relating to coal miners or agricultural labourers and their families. The fact remains that this book covers a great deal of ground within a short span. The only criticism of the 12 page bibliography-which is excellent in relation to secondary sources-is that it does not include a guide to all the par- liamentary papers brought together in the relevant sets of the Irish University Press Parliamentary Papers series.

Trade Unions and Society: the Struggle for Acceptance ISSO-1880. By W. Hamish Fraser. London: Allen and Unwin. 1974. 292 pp. E5.95.

Industrial Relations: Governnient and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain. By Philip S. Bagwell. Dublin: Irish Universlty Press. 1974. vii + 166 pp. 2250 cloth; 21.25 paperback.

238 REVIEW ARTICLES

However, this deficiency is as nothing compared to Professor Burnett’s indifference to bibliographical requirement^.^ UsefuZ Toil is a collection of autobiographies of working people from the 1820s to the 1920s. He suggests that there is a mass of such material without making any attempt to measure its actual extent-which is relatively small and perfectly capable of being organized within a provisional check-list. What is worse, the publishers- running true to type upon this occasion-dare to suggest that these extracts from working-class autobiographies and diaries ‘provide the antithesis of that kind of history which concentrates on “great names” and ignores the mass of mankind’. In truth, this is the d t e r ego rather than the antithesis of con- ventional ‘great names’ history. Professor Burnett is right in supposing that the best working-class writing tends to be autobiographical: he is wrong in imagining that it provides some unique insight into working-class con- sciousness. The serious historian of labour will value the kind of evidence which is assembled here, but will not be deluded into believing that it is representative. Nor will he be deceived by the claim that ‘the majority’ of these writings are appearing in print for the first time.

The book is organized into three parts covering ‘the Labouring Classes’, ‘Domestic Servants’ and ‘Skilled Workers’. Each part is well introduced. Familiar names such as those of Coombes, Broadhurst and Sturt appear beside those of other figures little known or occasionally, wholly unknown, before. The concept behind this book is a useful one. It is regrettable that it has not been developed in a more careful and systematic manner.

With the exception of Henry Broadhurst, Professor Burnett steers clear of working men who rose to eminence in parliamentary life. The vulgarity of their memoirs, their self-congratulatory tone, the profound moral com- placency which distinguishes almost all of them is sufficiently well established. Perhaps the most pitiful aspect of such autobiographies is the almost total absence of any writing of the slightest historical interest. Will Thorne, one of the heroes of the New Unionism, published his autobiography, M y Life’s Battles, in 1926. Giles and Lisanne Radice have tried to supplement their subject’s recollections in this monograph-length biography.’ Thorne was certainly one of the most interesting trade union MPs:-a company of which it might be said that many were chosen, but few were called! As the Radices remark, Thorne had more perseverance than Tom Mann or Ben Tillett. Few trade unionists entered the national political scene so disadvantaged and fewer still achieved as much. In this modest ‘life’ Thorne is used as a prophet of approved attitudes. The authors point to the fact that his militancy was not mindless nor was it inflexible. Thorne was for 100% trade unionism- which carries a moral for a movement which still falls so far short of achiev- ing such a goal. The ‘general’ unionism which he espoused has more relevance to a period of rapid industrial change than is the case with craft-or even, so it is asserted-with industrial unionism. Thorne’s commitment to the class struggle was qualified by a sense of obligation to his country-and so on.

If one was to judge the progress of labour history in the seventies by the four books under review it might seem that it has failed to live up to its achievements in the previous decade. Fraser and Bagwell are of high value

Useful Toil. Edited by John Burnett. London: Allen Lane. 1974. 364 pp. 25.00 cloth; E2.50 paperback. ’ Will Thorne, Constructive Militant. By Giles and Lisanne Radice. London: Allen and Unwin. 1974. 134 pp. E3.60.

RECORD SOCIETIES IN ENGLAND 239 pedagogically and are worthy examples of scholarship without being pioneer- ing; Burnett and the Radices’ books might have been written in the forties or fifties. It should, therefore be recalled that the seventies have already witnes- sed outstanding work by younger labour historians. One remembers Stedman Jones on Outcast London (1971); John Foster on the Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution (1974); James Hinton on The First Shop Stewards’ Movement (1973) and Jay Winter on Socialism and the Challenge of War (1974). These works were very different from each other, but they all con- tinued the enterprising and innovatory spirit which established itself ten years before. ‘The special relationship’ between labour and social history needs to be maintained and developed. Labour history needs to take heed of Hobsbawm’s lesson that the life of a class can never be studied in isolation from that of other classes and that it must not relapse into its outworn, heroic, hagiographic, or merely institutional modes. For their part, social historians ought not to follow Keynes’s advice and repudiate ‘them that begat us’. On the contrary, they will continue to direct special attention to re- covering the vocabulary and the grammar of the ‘voiceless’ and find in this kind of history the best text and the best unifying principle. If not, why, then, there will be a return to the ‘everyday’, the residual and the tedious.

University of Warwick ROYDEN HARRISON

R E C O R D S O C I E T I E S I N E N G L A N D

England is fortunate in having a large number of official series and voluntary societies devoted to the publication of historical manuscripts and records.’ In addition to the volumes of the Record Commission (1802-37), the Public Record Office’s Texts and Calendars (1856 onwards), the Rolls Series (1858- 96) and the Historical Manuscripts Commission (1870 onwards), there are the publications of a whole galaxy of learned societies. Of these the first was the Surtees Society (1834) which was originally devoted to the ancient King- dom of Northumbria (between the Humber, Forth, Clyde and Mersea) but eventually concentrated on Durham and Northumberland, while the second, the Camden Society (1838), was based in London and was national in scope. Both claimed to publish ‘early historical and literary remains’ whether they were chronicles, records, poems or plays, and though they obviously had a preference for the Middle Ages, their volumes were splendidly varied.

I t was not long before specialist bodies began to emerge demanding publications of a particular type. The first, by a long way, was the Hakluyt Society (1847) which (as was fitting in an imperial age) was devoted to the publication of voyages, expeditions and geographical material.’ It was followed by the Harleian Society (1869) for heraldic and genealogical material, and by the Pipe Roll Society (1884) which, though its purpose was the publication of all the public records prior to 1200, had an incidental

For convenience we will refer to them collectively as ‘Record Societies’ whether these words are embodied in their titles or not.

The latest publication of the society is The Hukhyt Hu~dbook, ed. D. B. Quinn (2 vols. 1974), a collection of papers devoted to the biographical, bibliographical and critical study of the Rev Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616) and his works. It can be obtained from The Hakluyt Soc., c /o The British Library, Great Russell St., London W.C.I. f12.00 the set.