By the late nineteenth century the organization and conditions of work, and the structure of families and communities, had laid the basis for what were to become the characteristic institutions of the industrial working class in Britain until the second half of the twentieth century.  Thus by 1914 a quarter of all manual workers were unionized while the patterns of a new working-class culture were increasingly evident.  The development of this culture therefore lies at the core of this paper.  Autobiography, contemporary writings, oral history and social surveys furnish the documents for an analysis of the experiences of work, community, family and leisure from which men and women forged their new culture.  The paper combines the new social history of labour with the older institutional history to demonstrate how the culture of the working class was shaped by differing industrial environments, by gender relationships at work and home, and by the larger community.  There is a rich historiography reflecting the wide variety of approaches to the study of working-class life adopted by students of industrial societies: work and work-based organizations like trade unions, family, gender, working-class economy, sport and leisure, and the lives of adolescent working-class boys and girls.

Neither previous knowledge of labour history nor later modern British history is a requirement of this paper.  It is intended that the paper will serve as an introduction to recent British social and political history and as an opportunity for those with some familiarity with the period to broaden and deepen their knowledge.

The paper also offers a potential bridge to the Special Subject, Political Pressures and Social Policy in Great Britain, 1899-1914, and to the Further Subject, British Society in the Twentieth Century.