Towards a history of British miners' militancy.

MINERS strikes & lockouts; INDUSTRIAL relations; COAL mining; AUTHORITY; TWENTIETH century

The article explores the militancy or strike-proneness of miners in Great Britain in 1893-1986. A satisfactory explanation for miners' militancy has so far eluded commentators and academics alike. The purpose of this article is to review the literature on this subject, beginning with the commentary of contemporaries during the periods of intense industrial unrest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is followed by a brief account of the contribution of social scientists towards an explanation of this phenomenon, and to examine the approach of historians to the subject. Finally, the researchers identify the questions, which still need to be answered and indicate directions for future research. The specialized study of industrial relations is the youngest of the disciplines to address the problem of strike causation in the coalmines. In the case of coal mining the strength and adaptability of miners' traditional forms of job controls and the complementary or sometimes competing intrusion by trade unions into managerial authority and business discretion has been recognized in several studies of the industry.