Brown, Blair and the Signing of a Contentious Alliance
I’ve written before about the brilliance of signatures. The link between time past and time present. The idea that the object you are holding was once held by some historical figure (not necessarily famous) who left their mark for eternity; an inky link between us and them. Those historical events don’t have to have happened … Read more
“The Spring is begun” [Part 2]
The rapid spread of Paineite philosophy, the huge volume of printed copies of The Rights of Man and particularly its popularity amongst the unenfranchised provoked a reaction. The1790s were remarkable for the sheer volume of debate between Paine and his fellow radicals on the one hand, and Burke and other defenders of the British constitution … Read more
“The Spring is begun”*
Thomas Paine at the People’s History Museum and Working Class Movement Library (Part 1) In the early stages of the American Revolution, a young and obscure British emigrant penned the following lines of a song entitled Liberty Tree: “But hear, O ye swains (tis a tale most profane), How all the tyrannical powers, King, commons, … Read more
The Anti-Suffrage Argument: A Changing Picture
I have written a post for blog Wonder Women: Radical Manchester. It examines the changing face of the anti-suffrage movement seen through the objects of the People’s History Museum and Working Class Movement Library. The above poster is by the artist John Hassall, for the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage, and probably produced sometime … Read more
Wilson’s White Heat
Today it is fifty years since Harold Wilson became leader of the Labour Party, beginning one of the most intriguing periods of Britain’s modern political history. Wilson was an everyman, the famous pipe smoker who preferred cigars in private, the scholar who enjoyed the company of celebrities, the modernist with a streak of conservatism, the … Read more
New Peterloo Evidence…Maybe
On the 16th August 1819 thousands of working class people gathered in the centre of Manchester to demand amongst other things the right to vote. The response of the local authorities was the order that the crowd be dispersed, the speakers arrested including Henry ‘the orator’ Hunt, and ‘order’ restored. The carnage, brutality and murder … Read more
Horse burger? In 1857 in Manchester’s Newton Heath
Food’s a controversial thing. Britain is a country currently obsessed by horse flesh, or so the press would have us believe. The revelation that a certain large supermarket’s beef burgers were in fact a combination of the humble cow and noble horse has been a hot topic. The general public were meant to be shocked … Read more
Banner Headlines
As I go wild in amongst the shelves of Working Class Movement Library and roller racking of the People’s History Museum, ferreting out those long forgotten treasures, the interesting, the unknown and the plain odd, one thing that has struck. There were a lot of organisations whose purpose was to instruct children in the benefits … Read more
Jarrow March
The death of Con Shiels, who was the last survivor of those who participated in the Jarrow March marks the final passing of a group who came to represent the horrors of inter-war unemployment. The Jarrow Crusade of 1936 was a march by unemployed men from Jarrow in the North East to London. The group were protesting against … Read more
The thing about signatures…
Today’s Guardian website carries a story about an autograph album which is to be auctioned next week. Contained within the book are the thoughts and signatures of a number of leading suffragettes, many of whom were imprisoned in the course of demanding vote for women. This post is not a plaintive plea for some kind … Read more
