Workers of the Empire, Unite: Radical and Popular Challenges to British Imperialism, 1910s–1960s. By Yann Béliard and Neville Kirk (eds)

Abstract

Imperial history has undergone something of a boom over the last two decades, labour history less so. Perhaps because of this, the place of labour in the empire is often overlooked and this edited volume by Yann Béliard and Neville Kirk aims to bring the two together by offering an integrated approach to labour and empire during decolonization. What exactly is meant by ‘labour’ is not obvious though. The editors’ stated aim is ‘to consider labour in the widest possible definition’ (p. 2), though it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the chapters represent a traditional reading of labour history: the organized labour movement, political organizations orientated towards that movement, and prominent figures associated with it. This is not a bad thing. Political parties that held sway over large parts of the world and organizations with memberships running to the hundreds of thousands are deservedly objects of the study.