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Catterall, Stephen
Book review: Class against Class: The Communist Party in Britain between the Wars, Matthew Worley, I. B. Tauris, 2002
Original Citation
Catterall, Stephen (2006) Book review: Class against Class: The Communist Party in Britain between the Wars, Matthew Worley, I. B. Tauris, 2002. Manchester Region History Review, 17 (2). pp. 127-129. ISSN 0952-4320
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LONG REVIEWS
Matthew Worley Class against Class: The Communist Party in Britain between the Wars London: I. B. Tauris, 2002, x + 352pp., h/b, ISBN 1–86064–747–2
Worley’s contribution is concerned with Worley lucidly develops this theme further the debate over the early development of in arguing that the debate within the the Communist Party of Great Britain CPGB reflected a wider debate within (CPGB) during the late 1920s and early international communism and led to a 1930s in a phase known as communism’s ‘leftward’ lurch which confirmed the split ‘Third Period’ following the Third with the Labour Party. International in 1919. It centres on the Worley’s analysis of party fortunes CPGB’s pursuance of the so-called ‘New reveals the difficulties it faced in having to Line’ introduced during 1927–28, an ambi- grapple with the application of the ‘New tious militant strategy to seize the Line’ throughout the economic and polit- leadership of the British working class ical crises of the late 1920s and early 1930s from both the Labour Party and the with a leadership frequently at logger- Trades Union Congress (TUC) and char- heads with the Communist International, acterised as an agenda of ‘class against while at the same time assuming the class’. Worley’s revisionist analysis seeks to mantle of ‘vanguard’ of the British establish a more nuanced account of the working class and attempting to voice the experience of the CPGB during this period routine concerns of workers. Worley than has hitherto been achieved. amply demonstrates the limits of the Worley presents a sound assessment ‘New Line’ through an analysis of the of the dilemmas faced by the party in links between the CPGB and trade union tackling the reverberations felt by the organisations. He indicates that through experience of the 1924 Labour government these travails the CPGB was deft enough and the aftermath of the 1926 General to learn through experience and following Strike, in positioning itself within the an introspection and re-organisation was British labour movement and in articu- able to stabilise what had become a lating a response to the hostility and parlous state for the party. From this marginalisation it faced from both the Worley offers an erudite and innovative TUC and Labour Party. By placing devel- interpretation of the shift of emphasis opments within a domestic and from attempts to win support from indus- international context Worley demonstrates trial workers to organising the an informed understanding of the uncer- unemployed, particularly in his assessment tain development of the ‘New Line’. His of the tensions which arose between the exposition of the ‘misunderstandings’ that CPGB and the National Unemployed arose over its interpretation between the Workers Movement (NUWM). Communist International and the CPGB in Worley offers a useful appraisal of how the context of the ‘British case’ is shown to CPGB fortunes improved during the early be pivotal in defining this relationship. 1930s through the increased influence it
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was able to exert on the back of economic paralleled by the emergence of a distinc- and political crises and government tive party culture which itself accentuated responses to them, and as a result of the the distance from other labour organisa- ‘realignment’ of 1930 which brought about tions. He successfully argues that this a more ‘pragmatic approach’ to CPGB process rested on the more unique intervention in the industrial sphere. On elements of adherence to communism, the other hand, as Worley observes, the which itself produced a ‘hardening’ of fact that much of this improvement was division from other labour ‘institutions’. achieved through the ability of the Worley’s account of ‘Party Life and NUWM to galvanise support amongst Education’ through its cultural and social unemployed workers once again brought activities is intriguing, particularly in the into sharp focus the realisation that the way the party attempted to adapt its CPGB had failed to make significant message to meet local conditions through inroads into the industrial working class. a variety of cultural and social activities, Through a two-chapter panorama and how these were perceived in industrial dealing with ‘The Party at Work’ Worley regions in Britain. provides a solid examination of the Worley’s analysis is underpinned by response by communists to the challenges extensive historical research from a variety and opportunities created by the economic of primary and secondary sources and political events of the period. This including much new material from constitutes a fascinating account of the Communist Party sources deposited at the interpretation of the ‘New Line’ by the Labour History Archive and Study Centre party rank and file and of activism in the of the People’s History Museum, workplace. Worley confirms that although Manchester, together with the Working the CPGB was influential in certain loca- Class Museum Library, Salford. tions and industries, the hegemony The main shortcoming of the work enjoyed by the Labour Party and its asso- lies in the content and organisation of its ciates combined with organisational subject matter. On the one hand, Worley difficulties to prevent communism produces an examination of the CPGB extending its influence. Moreover, the diffi- in terms of doctrinal and policy matters, culties involved in propagating theoretical while on the other he produces an assess- ideas to pragmatic workers engaged in ment of the sociology of the party and industrial disputes ensured that it failed to the party at work. The question must capitalise on industrial unrest and the be posed as to whether it would not despair felt by workers. This allows Worley have been more fruitful to have concen- to produce one of the most revealing trated on the latter. Worley offers some aspects of his analysis through a brief, but tantalising insights into the work of the absorbing, examination of the regions and party in specific industries and regions, industries in which the CPGB was active. but more on this under-researched area Similarly, Worley’s treatment of would have been welcome. Furthermore, Communist Party culture is another the chronological schema of much of the strong aspect of his study. He shows, in an study tends to accentuate the degree of effective way, how the party’s detachment fragmentation. A wholly thematic investi- from the rest of the labour movement was gation might have been more beneficial.
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The problem of coherence becomes there is the problematic assumption that evident in the disjuncture in handling structural industrial change in Britain was important questions the work proposes, directly influential in determining the such as understanding why the CPGB’s vagaries of Communist Party develop- ideological message proved so difficult and ment. However, to his credit, throughout in explaining the shift of emphasis from his work, Worley never assumes that the industrial workers to the unemployed. growth of the CPGB should have been Another limitation of the work inevitable. In this respect careful analysis concerns Worley’s less than emphatic of historical sources ensures that his revi- substantiation that the inability of the sionist credentials remain firmly intact in CPGB to extend its influence can be producing a worthy addition to our under- accounted for, as much by the increasing standing of the evolution of far left politics consolidation and domination of the in Britain between the wars. Labour Party and allied trade unions as Stephen Catterall the failure of doctrine and policy. Finally, Huddersfield University
Stephen James Carver The Life and Works of the Lancashire Novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, 1805–1882. Studies in British Literature, volume 75 Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2003 468pp. ISBN 0–7734–6633–9
Anyone who studies Ainsworth is aware of and thought-provoking conclusions. The the long shadow cast by S. M. Ellis, whose purely historical novels (although Carver two-volume 1911 work William Harrison might argue with that definition) Ainsworth and his Friends, though some- including Windsor Castle, The Tower of thing of a hagiography, is unsurpassed as London and Old St. Paul’s are considered in the standard account of the novelist’s life. a single chapter, followed by the novels Stephen Carver wisely decides not to with a Lancashire connection. In the final attempt a new biography, but to re-assess section, excruciatingly titled ‘Man of La the major novels and to set his comments Manchester’, the civic banquet given to in ‘a loosely biographical frame’ (p. 45). the aged novelist by his own city is This ‘Works and Life’ approach has been described, but, like most of the biograph- adopted before, notably by George ical parts of the book, adds little to the J. Worth, whose 1972 volume in the current body of knowledge. Twayne English Authors series is treated More worrying, however, is the rather dismissively by Carver. The greater emphasis placed on the critical reaction to part of this new book is taken up with case some of Ainsworth’s work, especially Jack studies of selected novels, beginning with Sheppard, which sparked off the ‘Newgate the early works, which have never previ- controversy’ of the early 1840s, when ously been studied in such depth, moving there was a considerable groundswell of on to the most successful novels, with the moral outrage at Ainsworth’s eponymous longest chapters devoted to Rookwood and anti-hero. Carver states that: ‘The story Jack Sheppard. These chapters contain the behind the accepted version of most painstakingly researched arguments Ainsworth’s critical assassination is also
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central to my argument . . . becoming a sufficient merely to refer once again to convenient way for his voice to be silenced Horne’s obscure text, in the face of by the Victorian critical establishment’ contrary evidence from the archives of (p. 45). This is a bold thesis, and one that, national journals. Furthermore, can in the face of the facts, is impossible to Horne, primarily a naval adventurer and sustain. Carver selects his examples with gold prospector in Australia, really be great care and judiciously avoids those that described as part of the ‘literary elite’? do not fit in with his theory. For example, Surely the critical success of Old St. Paul’s following the publication of Jack Sheppard, in 1841, shows that Ainsworth had success- the positive reviews are confined to a foot- fully weathered the storm of Jack note, quoting Fraser’s and Punch, then Sheppard. Carver places too much leaving the reader to ‘see Ellis I, 375, for emphasis on Horne’s pocket-sized rant. favourable notices.’ Chapter five, titled ‘The Lancashire To suggest that Ainsworth’s whole Novelist’, begins with a fascinating femi- career was blighted from that point nist reading of The Lancashire Witches, onward is overstating the case. A string of which is a virtuoso piece of literary criti- successful and uncontroversial novels, cism and deserves to be widely read. including Windsor Castle, The Tower of Mervyn Clitheroe does not fare so well, London, Old St. Paul’s and The Lancashire however. The description of Witches followed on through the 1840s. ‘Cottonborough’ from the novel is The objections to Jack Sheppard by such as reprinted in its entirety, but Carver Forster, Thackeray and (by default) declines to draw any serious conclusions Dickens, are well-known, but Carver from the long extract, stating blandly that places undue emphasis on the lunatic ‘I would offer “Cottonborough” as one of fringe, particularly R. H. Horne in A New the few genuinely objective accounts of Spirit of the Age (1844) which contained a Manchester to be found in the period’ few short pages of vituperation on (p. 356). Dr Carver, who lectures in Ainsworth’s work. popular culture, as well as Victorian litera- In the case of Old St. Paul’s, no less than ture, has a fluent and confident writing six glowing notices are reproduced, and style. From time to time, though, the Carver grudgingly admits ‘the Newgate language lurches alarmingly from taint had been banished by Ainsworth’s earnestly academic to matey demotic. For new direction (at least in the short term)’, example, on page 124, after retelling an but then insists on resurrecting anecdote from Ellis about Ainsworth R. H. Horne once more, like a gothic (during his short publishing phase), paying horror, to pour scorn upon the successful Scott, in person, a fraction of his normal novel. Carver attempts to justify this as fee for a ballad, Carver remarks that follows: ‘While such accolades have Ainsworth ‘certainly had more front than vanished into obscurity, R.H. Horne’s Brighton’ – Cor blimey! More seriously, predictable rejection of this novel endures’ the assertion that James Crossley ‘seemed (p. 277), following this up with the conclu- to write through Ainsworth’ (p. 49) reveals sion that ‘once again the literary elite fails a fundamental misunderstanding of the to understand a popular narrative’ (p. 278). relationship between the two men. This is not a convincing argument. It is not Crossley’s literary ambitions, apart from
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the editorial work he fulfilled for family have lied to the census taker to Chetham’s Society for 40 years, lay in the give the impression of respectability, when direction of biography. Together with it would have been much simpler to other Chetham Society stalwarts, Cross- legalise the union? Carver assumes that ley was happy to provide the historical the least likely, but most sensational possi- skeletons for Ainsworth to flesh out, but bility is the correct one, while offering to say he ‘wrote through’ Ainsworth is only the absence of evidence to support inaccurate and misleading. his theory. While leaving aside minor factual details The strength of this book lies in the that might be open to dispute, it is neces- detailed criticism of the major novels, sary to challenge the assumption that especially Rookwood, Jack Sheppard and The Ainsworth’s second marriage, as reported Lancashire Witches, together with the first by Ellis, did not in fact take place. Carver in-depth readings of the early works, all of cannot find evidence of the marriage to which make a real contribution to the Sarah Wells, described by Ellis as ‘a private slim, but belatedly growing, corpus of marriage’, some years before the birth of Ainsworth scholarship. Ultimately, the their daughter in 1867. Ellis was probably grand theory of critical conspiracy seems referring to a civil ceremony rather than a to peter out, and Carver reverts to the church wedding, and given his vagueness more conventional argument that about the date, this would indeed make Ainsworth ‘seems suddenly out of time the marriage somewhat difficult to trace. and place, the last of a line, a fantasist in Carver leaps to the conclusion that the an age of fact’ (p. 338). The book ends couple were unmarried, and cohabiting, with a plea for a renewal of interest in the with an illegitimate child, which would novelist’s work, which should necessarily have been an extremely unconventional, begin with a clutch of new editions of the even scandalous, situation at that time. We better-known titles. The next step would know the relationship was an enduring naturally be screen adaptations, and one (more so than Ainsworth’s first expe- Carver closes the final chapter in a typi- rience of matrimony), because the 1881 cally off-beat way by suggesting that Alan census shows them living with their Rickman should play the arch villain daughter, then fifteen, in Reigate. Jonathan Wild in Jack Sheppard. An apt Furthermore, Ellis notes that ‘the widow, piece of casting, but we must hope that Mrs Ainsworth’ was present at the Ainsworth’s name will still be remem- author’s funeral. So, if Carver is correct, bered when readers and cinema-goers are why should Ainsworth opt for this diffi- asking ‘Alan who?’ cult ménage? Why would he and his Steve Collins
John Chapple and Alan Shelston (eds) The Further Letters of Mrs Gaskell Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003 (origi- nally published 2000) 332pp. ISBN 0–7190–6771–5
The last twenty years have witnessed a that of a minor female novelist to one of major re-evaluation of Elizabeth Gaskell, the most significant writers of the mid- one that has seen her status elevated from nineteenth century. Her reputation is
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built upon an impressively diverse body Manchester, Gaskell had sequestered of works, encompassing two of the most herself in the home of Florence important representations of urban life Nightingale to devote herself to the and industrial unrest (Mary Barton [1848] writing of North and South. Not only does and North and South [1855]), her decep- this letter detail her feelings about the tively understated studies of provincial writing process – ‘I have been so tired with life (Cranford [1853] and Wives and writing; the mere act of mechanical Daughters [1866]) and a host of haunting writing, has left me as weak and as stupid tales of the supernatural. Yet one should as – I don’t know anything so stupid’ not underestimate the critical and pop- (p. 292) – it also contains a report of ular interest generated by her extensive Nightingale’s preparations and departure correspondence, first brought to the for the Crimea. Having begun the letter reader’s attention by Chapple and Pollard’s with an apology for having ‘literally monumental collection The Letters of nothing to say’ (p. 292) – the disingenuous Mrs Gaskell, published in 1966. Those not voice will be familiar to those who have yet familiar with this body of texts may read her novels – Gaskell also found occa- be surprised by the range and extent of sion to refer to the Westminster Review, her involvement with some of the comment upon the various war corre- leading literary, artistic and cultural figures spondents for The Times and copy an of the day: Rossetti, Ruskin, Nightingale epigram written on William Whewell’s and Harriet Martineau all figure within Of the Plurality of Worlds. The breadth of the circle of friends and acquaintances allusion and topical engagement evident with whom she corresponded. The Letters in this letter is entirely typical of this was followed in 2000 by Chapple and fascinating compilation of Gaskell’s Shelston’s Further Letters of Elizabeth correspondence. Gaskell and now by an updated paperback Chapple and Shelston’s editorial style edition. The editors’ achievement in and practices are both convenient and gathering together 270 new letters (only unobtrusive. Footnotes are reserved for 40 of which were previously published) the most significant people and events is impressive, and the result a worthy while a Biographical Register provides companion to the original Letters. The more detail about a range of individuals paperback edition will bring a valuable and who figure prominently throughout the illuminating body of correspondence to a correspondence. That said, those who do broader range of Gaskell scholars and not possess the original Letters may, occa- interested readers. sionally, find the cross-references to this In addition to making a number of volume slightly frustrating. The corrections and amendments, this volume Introduction sets the scene for what includes six letters discovered after the follows: directing the reader’s attention to 2000 edition went to press. Perhaps the significant letters and correspondents and most interesting of these additional providing a general introduction to, sources is a letter to Gaskell’s friend Eliza amongst other things, Gaskell’s philan- Paterson, written in 1854 when, in an thropic activities, her relationship with attempt to escape the demands and inter- her publishers and, more generally, her ruptions attendant upon her busy life in own feelings and anxieties about her status
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as a writer and the reception of her works. economic and social deprivation. Here, as In a particularly telling letter of 1850, in her novels, the emphasis is almost exclu- Gaskell demonstrates a surprisingly sively upon the individual. Indeed, certain modern understanding of fractured iden- letters leave one with the sense, certainly tity, acknowledging that she is not unique to Gaskell, that the mass characterised by ‘a great number’ of ‘mes’ suffering of an entire class overwhelmed as ‘warring members’: middle-class wife and almost paralysed her. Yet seeing and mother, Unitarian, social being and Manchester through Gaskell’s eyes, one is woman writer (p. 108). Gaskell was, presented not only with its horrors but precisely, a multi-faceted subject also with its great achievements. constructed by a variety of contemporary Descriptions of economic distress jostle discourses. Reading the Introduction, one with references to Hallé’s orchestra or the occasionally feels that this complexity Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition. might have been more fully illuminated by Arguably, what makes Gaskell’s indus- recent theoretical debates and conceptual trial novels so significant is the fact that frameworks. At the same time, one can she takes the reader into the homes of the also appreciate that the audience for these working classes in order to demonstrate letters extends beyond that of academic the impact of industrialism on domestic scholars. life. Clearly, this interest in domestic affairs Those primarily interested in Gaskell as characterised her own life, and many a writer will find a wealth of material in letters display a positive craving for, and the numerous letters that offer her inter- delight in, the ordinary, day-to-day activi- pretations of the writing process and the ties and routines that dominated the contemporary response to her novels. Of lives of so many middle-class women. particular interest, as Chapple and Yet many of these same letters also Shelston point out, are the letters to her represent an explicit engagement with various publishers and editors docu- the most pressing social and political menting Gaskell’s growing sense of herself issues of the period: the Crimean War, as a professional author. Reading in her the Indian Mutiny, British-American rela- more intimate correspondence with tions and, closer to home, the Cotton personal friends the catalogue of Famine of 1861–64. As such, they shed exhausting engagements and both familial new light on how the great public events and social duties, one is left wondering of the day were experienced and inter- how Gaskell managed to produce as much preted by an informed and concerned as she did. Such letters bring home, in individual. Thus this collection must be concrete detail, the difficulties and mate- seen as an important source document for rial obstacles experienced by women anyone interested in the values and views writers of the period. Also of interest are of the Victorian age. the many letters that detail her tireless Janice Allan efforts on behalf of those suffering Salford University
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Mark Cropper The Leaves We Write On: James Cropper: A History in Paper-Making London: Ellergreen Press, 2004. 300pp, illustrated. ISBN 0954919106
Mark Cropper’s The Leaves We Write On through his becoming engaged to Fanny is a history of his family’s paper- Alison Wakefield of Kendal in 1842 that making firm at Burneside, near Kendal James decided to buy the papermills at in the Lake District. It covers local Cowan Head and Burneside for £13,000 in history, family history as well as the busi- 1845. And, at appropriate places through- ness and technical development of James out the rest of the book, we have the Cropper & Co. from 1845 to 2004. The history of this remarkable family which opening chapter sets the local industrial has guided the fortunes of this papermill scene on the River Kent with corn and up to and including the present chairman, fulling mills originating from at least another James Cropper. These accounts of 1290, passing through woollen and the various marriages, children, etc. have cotton mills to paper and a paper been drawn from a wide range of family machine in 1833. The introduction of papers which must be unique for any papermaking here was helped by the papermill. Kendal bankers, the Wakefields. The first papermaking James later Papermaking at other places in the vicinity admitted that he had paid too much for is also touched on. the business and also that he had little idea The second chapter outlines the of the complexities of making a sheet of Cropper family background from 1600 to paper. For the first few years, the mills lost 1845. Their links to the Quakers was money and the venture might well have perhaps one factor in the first James floundered but for the support of the Cropper changing from farming to family fortunes of the Croppers, the becoming a merchant in Liverpool during Wakefields and then the printers George the 1790s in partnership with Thomas McCorquodale and William Blacklock Benson. This partnership helped to estab- who, for many years, provided important lish the Black Ball Line to America which outlets for the paper. James was lucky in flourished through being the first to inau- various ways, such as the excellent situa- gurate regular twice-monthly sailings in tion of Burneside Mill on the Kent for 1818. Cropper Benson survived various waterpower, the expansion of the railways vicissitudes and, although wound up in in the 1840s which opened up much wider 1836–8, provided the fortune on which markets (the Kendal to Windermere line James Cropper, papermaker, could estab- opened in 1847), the abolition of the duty lish himself. The Quaker tradition on paper in 1861 which increased demand continued to manifest itself in the and Croppers’ venture into coloured Croppers’ attitude to their worker’s papers around the same time which has welfare at Burneside down the years. remained a feature of this company ever Born in 1823 to parents who practised since. In the 1860s, Croppers mitigated the their Quaker beliefs, James Cropper, general shortage of fibres for paper- papermaker, went to Edinburgh University making by turning to jute which was in 1840, unsure of his future career. It was suitable for coloured papers. While later
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woodpulp became their predominant recent years into, for example, their tech- source, they were willing to experiment nical fibre products, the converting with other furnishes. department and their mill shop, now Another feature of Croppers through- expanded into fourteen stores across the out their history has been a willingness to country. invest in new machinery, starting with a The story was not always one of plain new papermaking machine in 1855. De- sailing and the book covers the problems tails of such investments are given but just as well as the successes. Accidents and after the First World War, when prosperity disasters are given their place. In 1893 the turned to slump, a fifth machine on order mill chimney was blown down, killing was fortuitously cancelled. Their introduc- three girls. In 1903 there was a serious fire. tion of the twin-wire machine was another Pollution of the River Kent nearly led to technical innovation which literally paid closure of the mills through litigation, dividends. In the 1950s when Croppers taken to the High Court, with the local became a public company floated on the angling club. This was finally solved only London Stock Exchange, over £800,000 by sending the effluent to Kendal Sewage was spent on modernisation. Even in the Treatment Works by special pipe-line at years of difficult trading in the 1980s, there high cost. Around 1900, Charles Cropper’s was further investment which had reached love of foxhunting was probably detri- £46 million by 1991. So, although develop- mental to the firm’s profits. Yet, the ment grants and tax allowances were the production figures and profits and losses key to survival at a time when so many recorded from 1853 to 2004 show a other papermaking mills closed down, it remarkable story of success. The first was a thoroughly modernised mill which profit was recorded in 1854 and there was faced recent challenges. no annual loss apart from 1921 and 1976. But the machinery alone would not It was originally intended that a history have brought success to Croppers had the should be published in 1995 to celebrate product not been right. Coloured papers the 150th anniversary of the company, but and the ability to change these quickly the intervening years have enabled addi- are but one example. Croppers have long tional research to produce an outstanding made black paper which few other mills history of this extraordinary company. were willing to do – a product much in Sources are properly referenced for those demand for black-out in the Second World who wish to delve deeper. I judge it to be War. Another example was Croppers’ the best account we have of one of the patent linen-lined paper for registered smaller British papermaking enterprises. envelopes made from 1878 to 1960. Such Mark Cropper must be congratulated on innovations have continued to the present his achievement. with the company diversifying in more Richard Hills
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Jutta Schwarzkopf Unpicking Gender: The Social Construction of Gender in the Lancashire Cotton Weaving Industry, 1880–1914 Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. xi + 228 pp. ISBN 0–75460–980–4
Jutta Schwarzkopf ’s study of gender in the describes the high level of skill required to Lancashire cotton industry contributes to compensate for inadequacies owing to the both gender and labour history by going variable quality of the cotton and the beyond traditional understandings of peculiarities of the looms. Arguing that gender as the social organisation of sexual skill is no objective measure of the difference and a major source of requirements of the labour process, she inequality. In Schwarzkopf ’s account, suggests that by assuming an identity as a gender is a process within which a multi- skilled worker, the female weaver appro- plicity of femininities or masculinities can priated as feminine what was usually be constructed in a variety of social thought of as masculine, thereby deviating contexts. Of particular interest to scholars from dominant understandings of concerned with gender inequality is the working-class femininity. highlighting of experience and agency In the absence of the division of labour which, the writer argues, have become as a possibility in which gender differences increasingly questionable as concepts of could be identified, Schwarzkopf uses historical analysis. By way of contrast to several case studies to show how male studies of textuality and literary analysis, workers and unionists tried to reaffirm Schwarzkopf ’s in-depth research draws on masculinity by distinguishing themselves a wealth of primary sources, such as royal in other ways. For example, in the commission and parliamentary investiga- campaign against ‘driving’ in weaving tions, The Cotton Factory Times (the cotton sheds, female weavers were portrayed as workers’ newspaper), as well as personal vulnerable and as victims (constructed as testimony, and which lead her to the different to the more resilient male conclusion that ‘it is people rather than weaver), requiring the aid and protection discourses that make history’ (p. 2). of male co-workers. In her re-appraisal of Much of the existing literature on the instances of suicide resulting from the history of the Lancashire cotton industry driving system, Schwarzkopf argues has shown that in the cotton weaving convincingly that women’s self-identity process men and women worked together revolved largely around their work, and using the same machines for the same rate that failure in respect of income and status of pay. Schwarzkopf regards such work as in the community could exert a profound central to the identity of female weavers, effect upon their psychological well-being. and accords to the labour process a prin- Tracing the events around the introduc- cipal role in accounting for their tion of the Northrop loom into Ashton self-perception as men’s equals in the Bros at Hyde, the study also investigates workplace. Although weavers were held in how different notions of gender might low esteem by contemporaries and by come into conflict: employers colluding historians who regard weaving as semi- with male operatives to introduce new skilled (involving a loss of respectability if technologies bound with skill and performed by a man), Schwarzkopf masculinity; union amalgamations
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supporting the male bread-winner wage; A central argument of this study is that and female weavers defending their right near-equality in the labour process alerted to paid employment amid accusations of female weavers to inequality elsewhere, breaching conceptions of femininity. and motivated their involvement in Some scholars might question unionism and the suffrage campaign. Schwarzkopf’s view that female weavers Although it has been suggested that saw themselves as waged workers first, women lacked commitment to union rather than primarily as wives and activity, Schwarzkopf comments on the mothers.1 In addition, the emphasis on strength of numbers, enthusiasm and pride and satisfaction, as well as enjoy- awareness of gender inequality among ment associated with work in the weaving female weavers which led to attempts to shed, in this study might downplay the improve their condition and alleviate negative aspects of tiring work in insani- specific grievances. Such opportunities tary conditions. However, whether or not were largely denied to other less skilled female weavers saw their paid work as and less well-paid female cotton workers. more important than domestic manage- In her depiction of women weavers as ment, it does appear from this and other agents shaping their own lives by research that the necessity of the wife’s defending their right to paid employment, economic contribution resulted in a more encouraging more equitable relation- pronounced sharing of household duties ships in the home and struggling for the between partners and more equitable vote to improve their lives, Schwarkopf family relationships than were evident encourages scholars to rethink and among other working-class couples. reshape ideas of gender as a social Indeed, Schwarzkopf and others have construction, and to relate such concepts shown that such mutuality extended to to the real lived experiences of women in joint decision-making over the issue of a particular historical and cultural time. controlling fertility. Demonstrating the Stressing that, the ‘renegotiation of gender interconnection of work and family, the occurred at the workplace, where it was study highlights cultural values that were anchored in the specific organisation of endorsed and shared, as friends, neigh- the labour process in cotton weaving, bours and relatives worked in close whence it radiated to other sites on proximity creating particular understand- which gender is constructed’ (p. 170), ings of femininity and masculinity in the Schwarzkopf demonstrates that female process of the construction of gender in weavers understood relations of power cotton weaving communities. as social constructions that were
1. On this see B. L. Hutchins, Women in Modern Industry (London, 1915); and M. Gomersall, ‘Education of Factory Women’, History of Education, 1991, 24(2), pp. 159-64. See also the writings of A. Nield Chew, ‘All in A Day’s Work’, The Englishwoman, 15, 1912, pp. 35-45; and the autobiographies of weavers such as A. Foley, A Bolton Childhood (Manchester, 1973); and D. Smith, My Revelation: An Autobiography. How a Working Woman Finds God (London, 1933), as well as oral testimonies recorded by E. Roberts in Woman’s Place: An Oral Investigation of Working Class Women, 1890-1940 (Oxford, 1984); and J. Liddington in ‘Working Class Women in the North West’, Oral History, 1977, 5(2), pp. 31-46.
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changeable. This study makes clear that it construction of gender to be observed is not the uniqueness of conditions in the beyond the confines of any particular Lancashire weaving industry that made industry. This study therefore, provides a this a choice for study but rather the very useful model for wider research on labour process itself, which was crucial in gender inequality. the formation of gender and which Patricia Marland created the conditions that allows the University of Manchester
Terry Wyke with Harry Cocks Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester: Public Sculpture of Britain, Volume 8 Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2004. ISBN 0–85323–567–8
This handsome volume, winner of the sensible interpretation of ‘sculpture which 2005 Portico Library prize for North West is accessible to the general public or visible literature, is the eighth volume in the from the public highway’. They are careful Public Sculpture of Britain series, the to remind readers of the possible security National Recording Project of the Public implications of trying to view at close Monuments and Sculpture Association. hand a piece visible from the highway, but The first seven volumes were all written contained within an institution such as a by art historians. For Greater Manchester, school or hospital. Given these limits the however, the commission was given to range of material included is very wide, Terry Wyke, a social and economic histo- featuring portrait statues, portrait busts, rian at Manchester Metropolitan University, architectural sculpture obelisks, fountains, assisted by cultural historian Harry Cocks. towers, war memorials and ‘modern sculp- This was an excellent choice since Wyke ture’ which of its nature escapes any of has an encyclopedic knowledge of the the preceding categories. historical records of north west England, The city of Manchester has pride of both archival and structural. The result is place with more than 150 entries occu- a volume of great interest to historians, pying almost a third of the book. Albert professional and lay. Square and the Town Hall, with its In planning the volume, the authors Sculpture Hall, are covered in detail, faced a number of problems, the first beginning with Prince Albert, beneath his being geographical. Greater Manchester, Worthington-designed canopy, and ending as they acknowledge, is a ‘boundary of with Cawthra’s little noticed ‘Philosopher’ convenience’. Many of the ten boroughs on the Town Hall extension, christened contained within it were a creation of the ‘Mr Therm’ by citizens paying their gas Local Government Act of 1974. Whilst bills in that building. historically important towns like Salford, Manchester’s twin city, comes Stockport, Wigan and Bolton fell within next, although with a mere 27 entries their remit, Blackburn and Preston, an despite being a pioneer in the provision of integral part of ‘textile Lancashire’, were public parks, the space for much public outside it. Another problem, needing early sculpture. It now has only two portrait resolution, was that of the definition of statues, Albert and Victoria. Sir Robert ‘public sculpture’. The authors made the Peel has been removed from his
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eponymous park, Cobden is missing and monuments were built, the names of its Joseph Brotherton transferred to dead being added to those on World War Manchester (fee undisclosed). One memorials. Only recently has there After these two cities, the other eight been a revival with the regeneration of metropolitan boroughs follow in alphabet- town centres, the expansion of school and ical order, most meriting between 20 and university building and the development of 30 entries, although Stockport, despite its out of town shopping malls and sports ‘wedding cake’ Town Hall and Ledward’s stadia. Trafford’s 23 entries include three impressive war memorial manages only in the Trafford Centre, three at ten. This relative paucity of public sculp- Manchester United’s ground and three in ture in part reflects the fact that these the regenerated Quays area of Trafford boroughs were amalgams of smaller, inde- Park. East Manchester regeneration and pendent towns like Altrincham or Sale in the 2002 Commonwealth Games gave Trafford, and Hyde or Ashton in the city James Butler’s ‘Reg Harris’ at the Tameside. In these smaller, workaday Velodrome and Colin Spofforth’s ‘The communities, public art was regarded as Runner’. These have recently been something of a frivolous expense, even if joined by Thomas Heatherwick’s ‘B of this came from the pocket of a wealthy the Bang’, ‘the tallest public sculpture in donor or a public subscription rather than Britain’. from the rates. Where a monument was From 1850 to the present, controversy erected, it often took the form of an has surrounded much public sculpture and obelisk, portrait bust or, where the topog- here Wyke comes into his own, with fasci- raphy was suitable, a tower on a nearby nating essays on the origins and hilltop, rather than a more expensive movements of Barnard’s ‘Abraham portrait statue. Lincoln’ (‘the tramp with the colic’), now In all the places dealt with, however, the in Lincoln Square off Deansgate, or on the book reveals a similar chronological fierce debates over the siting of Matthew pattern in attitudes to public sculpture. Noble’s ‘Oliver Cromwell’ in front of The early nineteenth century produced Manchester Cathedral, ‘an odious effigy of little, even a net loss as ancient market a traitor and a regicide’ in the view of the crosses were removed in face of increased Conservative press. urban traffic. The sudden death of Sir Though Cromwell is now removed to Robert Peel in 1850, along with the devel- the less sensitive area of Wythenshawe opment of public spaces such as parks and Park receiving the attention mainly of non squares, gave rise to a burst of monument sectarian pigeons, social and political building not only to Peel but to other controversy continues to arise over public (male) worthies, local and national. By the statues. Computer companies refused to 1890s, public support weakened only to be subscribe to the statue of Alan Turing in aroused by the great burst of war memo- Sackville Park because of his homosexu- rial building after 1919. This completed, ality. Stephen Broadbent’s ‘Pull the Plug’ there followed decades of indifference, if in front of Hyde Town Hall was opposed not outright hostility, to public sculpture by some because it appeared to condone especially to statues of the ‘coat and an act of civil disobedience, the Plug Plot trousers’ variety. Few World War Two of 1842. Most opposition though is on the
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grounds of expense especially where the owner. This is followed by detailed purse being opened is a public one. One description of the piece and then the senses a whiff of disapproval as Trafford historical background to it, fully foot- folk ride the Metro tram past Kan noted. Most pieces are illustrated by a Yashuda’s tactile ‘Touchstone’ outside the black and white photograph. A useful glos- Bridgewater Hall (‘No wonder their sary of architectural terms, biographical council tax is so high!’). notes on many of the sculptors, and a very Only the very churlish can complain at full bibliography conclude the work. It the cost of this splendidly informative outweighs a Pevsner and is not pocket volume. After a short introduction and a size, but it makes a major contribution to helpful map of the borough being the cultural history of the Manchester described, each entry contains details of region. the architect/sculptor, its date, inscrip- Michael E. Rose tion(s), condition (too often ‘poor’) and Manchester Centre for Regional History
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