{"id":40226,"date":"2024-03-27T22:06:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T22:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=40226"},"modified":"2024-03-27T22:10:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T22:10:19","slug":"robert-gildea-backbone-of-the-nation-mining-communities-and-the-great-strike-of-1984-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=40226","title":{"rendered":"Robert Gildea, \u201eBackbone of the Nation: Mining Communities and the Great Strike of 1984-85\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>\u201cAn admirably compassionate testament\u201d\u2014Max Hastings, <\/strong><em><strong>Sunday Times<\/strong><\/em><strong><br><br>\u201cA vivid and evocative panorama\u201d\u2014James Graham, <em>The Observer<\/em><br><br>\u201cSuperb\u201d\u2014John Harris, <em>The Guardian<\/em><\/strong><br><br><strong>A powerful new history of the Great Strike in the miners\u2019 own voices, based on more than 140 interviews with former miners and their families<\/strong><br><br>Forty years ago, Arthur Scargill led the National Union of Mineworkers on one of the largest strikes in British history. A deep sense of pride existed within Britain\u2019s mining communities who thought of themselves as the backbone of the nation\u2019s economy. But they were vilified by Margaret Thatcher\u2019s government and eventually broken: deprived of their jobs, their livelihoods, and in some cases, their lives.<br><br>In this groundbreaking new history, Robert Gildea interviews those miners and their families who fought to defend themselves. Exploring mining communities from South Wales to the Midlands, Yorkshire, County Durham, and Fife, Gildea shows how the miners and their families organized to protect themselves, and how a network of activists mobilized to support them.<br><br>Amid the recent wave of industrial action in the United Kingdom, <em>Backbone of the Nation<\/em> highlights anew the importance of labor organization\u2014and intimately records the triumphs, losses, and resilience of these mining communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Robert Gildea <\/strong>is professor emeritus of modern history at the University of Oxford. He is the author of <em>Fighters in the Shadows<\/em>, <em>Empires of the Mind<\/em>, and the Wolfson Prize\u2013winning <em>Marianne in Chains<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Praise<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGildea\u2019s book offers an admirably compassionate testament.\u201d\u2014Max Hastings, <em>Sunday Times<\/em><br><br>\u201cA vivid and evocative panorama for those either interested in the final throes of industrial society or who come from such communities.\u201d\u2014James Graham, <em>The Observer<\/em><br><br>\u201cA superb new book by the Oxford University historian Robert Gildea.\u201d\u2014John Harris, <em>The Guardian<\/em><br><br>\u201cGildea has an ear for everyday oratory, and his interviewees come to life on the page. . . .\u00a0Gildea\u2019s assessment introduces rare nuance while remaining moving, drawing out memories of conflict as well as co-operation.\u201d\u2014Conrad Landon, <em>Times Literary Supplement<\/em><br><br>\u201cDrawing on 148 testimonies, Gildea, a University of Oxford historian, teases out a battle not only between the National Union of Mineworkers and Margaret Thatcher\u2019s Conservative government, but between different mining traditions and ideologies.\u201d\u2014Johnathan McAloon, <em>Financial Times<\/em><br><br>\u201cAt last, a book about the strike that gives an honest overview of what happened to miners, their families and communities. We entrusted Gildea with our memories, and he has, in return, told our story with dignity and a historian\u2019s eye.\u201d\u2014Si\u00e2n James, former MP for Swansea East<br><br>\u201cGildea has dug deep and struck the richest of seams. By inviting us to listen carefully to the men and women on the strike\u2019s frontline, he\u2019s created history that is revelatory, gripping, and\u2014best of all\u2014infused with humanity. In short, <em>Backbone of the Nation<\/em> is a masterpiece.\u201d\u2014David Hendy, author of <em>The BBC: A People\u2019s History<\/em><br><br>\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for the definitive oral history of the Miners\u2019 Strike. This is it: the voices of people I spent a year fighting alongside condensed and preserved with rigour and accuracy.\u201d\u2014Paul Mason, author of <em>Live Working or Die Fighting<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Yale University Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knjige","category-novosti"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Gildea.jpg?fit=652%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52834,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52834","url_meta":{"origin":40226,"position":0},"title":"&#8220;Spatial Worlds of Medieval Central Europe: Real, Imagined, and Conceptual&#8221;, Budapest, 19\u201321 May 2027","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"6. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Following successful conferences in Budapest (2014), Olomouc (2016), Zagreb (2018), Gda\u0144sk (2021), Bratislava (2023), and Munich (2025), the Seventh Biennial Conference of MECERN (http:\/\/mecern.eu\/) will focus on spatial worlds in medieval history, especially in Central Europe. The concepts of space, place, and the environment are central to our understanding of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mecern-Logo.jpg?fit=450%2C270&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":54062,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54062","url_meta":{"origin":40226,"position":1},"title":"OBJAVLJEN NOVI BROJ \u010cASOPISA \u201eHISTORY IN FLUX\u201c (7\/2025)","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"12. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Na portalu hrvatskih znanstvenih i stru\u010dnih \u010dasopisa Hr\u010dak objavljen je novi broj \u010dasopisa \u201eHistory in Flux\u201c (7\/2025), \u010dasopisa Odsjeka za povijest Filozofskog fakulteta Sveu\u010dili\u0161ta Josipa Dobrile u Puli koji ure\u0111uju Robert Kureli\u0107 i Igor Duda.\u00a0 Op\u0161irnije: https:\/\/hrcak.srce.hr\/broj\/26542","rel":"","context":"U &quot;\u010casopisi&quot;","block_context":{"text":"\u010casopisi","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/flux_logo.jpg?fit=1170%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/flux_logo.jpg?fit=1170%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/flux_logo.jpg?fit=1170%2C350&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/flux_logo.jpg?fit=1170%2C350&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/flux_logo.jpg?fit=1170%2C350&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52586,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52586","url_meta":{"origin":40226,"position":2},"title":"Aur\u00e9lie Daher, \u201eHezbollah: Mobilisation and Power\u201c","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"22. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Morning Star \u2018Book of the Year\u2019 Social movement, liberation party or terrorist group? With Hezbollah\u2019s growing involvement in the war in Syria, this study of its impact on Lebanon, drawing heavily on first-hand interviews, could not be more timely. 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The event will feature a lecture by\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54276,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54276","url_meta":{"origin":40226,"position":5},"title":"Rok Stergar, Vaclav Smidrkal (eds), &#8220;Nourishing Victory: Food Shortages and Post-Imperial Transition in the Bohemian Lands and Slovenia&#8221;","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"23. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"The aggravating food shortage was the central internal crisis in Habsburg Austria during the First World War and posed a major challenge to the consolidation of the successor states. 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