This book examines, the role of trade unions in the British state's management of industrial conflict in the years 1910-21. It explores the constraints placed on state and trade union action by industrial conflict in this period. It develops a detailed sociology of industrial relations drawing on primary archive sources. This period is frequently portrayed as the last great revolutionary period in British history characterized by the sheer growth of numbers in the unions; by the working days lost through strikes; by the upsurge of socialist organization, campaigning, ideas; by the intensity and range of debate over tactics and strategy of the struggle for socialism.
