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Book Cover
Book
Author Raw, Louise.

Title Striking a light : the Bryant and May Matchwomen and their place in Labour history / Louise Raw
Published London ; New York : Continuum, [2009]
©2009

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  331.8920941 Raw/Sal  AVAILABLE
Description 278 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Contents Angels in the House and Factory Girls -- Haunted by the Woman Question :TheVictorian labour Movement and women workers -- Life, Work and Politics in the Victorian East End -- Liberals and Lucifers : Bryant and May and matchmaking -- The 'Notorious' Annie Besant : the Strike leaders Reconsidered -- 'One Girl began' : the strike and the Matchwomen -- The Matchwomen, the Great Dock Strike and New Unionism -- Matchwomen, Dockers and the London Irish community -- In search of the Matchwomen : Case Study and Primary Evidence -- Conclusions
Summary "In July 1888, fourteen hundred women and girls employed by the matchmakers Bryant and May walked out of their East End factory and into the history books. In this very well written and engaging book Louise Raw provides a new interpretation of events which is more vibrant than the orthodox version and shows that the women themselves, not celebrity Socialists like Annie Besant, began it. She provides unequivocal evidence to show that the matchwomen greatly influenced the Dock Strike of 1889, which until now was thought to be the key event of new unionism. She sees the matchgirls as the mothers of the modern labour movement. This is the story of one of the best known strikes in labour history, an event whose real significance and truth about what happened has been hidden until now." -- Publisher description
Notes Formerly CIP. Uk
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [235]-274) and index
Subject Labor unions -- Great Britain -- History.
Strikes and lockouts -- Match industry -- England -- London.
Women in the labor movement -- Great Britain.
LC no. 2009499312
ISBN 1847251471 (hbk.)
9781847251473 (hbk.)