These Poor Hands

These Poor Hands PDF Author: Bill Jones
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1783160853
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
These Poor Hands: The Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales', was first published in June 1939. It was an instant bestseller, and its fame catapulted its author into the front rank of 'proletarian writers'. B. L. Coombes, an English-born migrant, had lived in the Vale of Neath since before the First World War, but only turned to writing in the 1930s as a way of communicating the plight of the miners and their communities to the wider world. "These Poor Hands" presents, in a documentary style, the working life of the miner as well as the author's experiences in the lock-outs of 1921 and 1926. It demonstrates Coombes' desire to offer an accurate account of the lives of miners and their families, and carries a sincere moral charge in its description of the waste of human potential that is industrial capitalism in decline. Long out of print, "These Poor Hands" has been recognised for over sixty years as the classic miner's autobiography.

These Poor Hands

These Poor Hands PDF Author: Bill Jones
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1783160853
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
These Poor Hands: The Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales', was first published in June 1939. It was an instant bestseller, and its fame catapulted its author into the front rank of 'proletarian writers'. B. L. Coombes, an English-born migrant, had lived in the Vale of Neath since before the First World War, but only turned to writing in the 1930s as a way of communicating the plight of the miners and their communities to the wider world. "These Poor Hands" presents, in a documentary style, the working life of the miner as well as the author's experiences in the lock-outs of 1921 and 1926. It demonstrates Coombes' desire to offer an accurate account of the lives of miners and their families, and carries a sincere moral charge in its description of the waste of human potential that is industrial capitalism in decline. Long out of print, "These Poor Hands" has been recognised for over sixty years as the classic miner's autobiography.

These Poor Hands - The Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales

These Poor Hands - The Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales PDF Author: B. L. Coombes
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1447496191
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Coombes' title These Poor Hands first published in 1939, was an instant best-seller, catapulting the author to the forefront of proletarian writers. Coombes was born in England, but he lived for a large part of his in the Vale of Neath, South Wales, and as the economic problems of the 30s worsened, he turned to writing as a way to spread the news of the plight of miners and their communities to the wider world. He presented the daily life of miners in documentary fashion, with special attention to the damaging lockouts of 1921 and 1926, These Poor Hands retains the power to astonish readers with its description of the ways that unfettered capitalism can lay waste to pure human potential.

These Poor Hands, the Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales, by B.L. Coombes

These Poor Hands, the Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales, by B.L. Coombes PDF Author: B. L. Coombes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description


These Poor Hands; the Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales; 1939

These Poor Hands; the Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales; 1939 PDF Author: Bert Lewis Coombes
Publisher: Hassell Street Press
ISBN: 9781013816208
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Miners' Lung

Miners' Lung PDF Author: Arthur McIvor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317095839
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
Arthur McIvor and Ronald Johnston explore the experience of coal miners' lung diseases and the attempts at voluntary and legal control of dusty conditions in British mining from the late nineteenth century to the present. In this way, the book addresses the important issues of occupational health and safety within the mining industry; issues that have been severely neglected in studies of health and safety in general. The authors examine the prevalent diseases, notably pneumoconiosis, emphysema and bronchitis, and evaluate the roles of key players such as the doctors, management and employers, the state and the trade unions. Throughout the book, the integration of oral testimony helps to elucidate the attitudes of workers and victims of disease, their 'machismo' work culture and socialisation to very high levels of risk on the job, as well as how and why ideas and health mentalities changed over time. This research, taken together with extensive archive material, provides a unique perspective on the nature of work, industrial relations, the meaning of masculinity in the workplace and the wider social impact of industrial disease, disability and death. The effects of contracting dust disease are shown to result invariably in seriously prescribed lifestyles and encroaching isolation. The book will appeal to those working on the history of medicine, industrial relations, social history and business history as well as labour history.

The 1926 Miners' Lockout

The 1926 Miners' Lockout PDF Author: Hester Barron
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199575045
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
The miners' lockout of 1926 was a pivotal moment in British twentieth-century history. Investigating issues of collective identity and action, Hester Barron explores the way that the lockout was experienced by Durham's miners and their families, illuminating wider debates about solidarity and fragmentation within working-class communities.

B. L. Coombes

B. L. Coombes PDF Author: Bill Jones
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1786831775
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
Bert Coombes settled in south Wales in 1909, where he worked as a miner for more than forty years. He was motivated to write after witnessing the death of two work mates underground, and he determined to tell his truth about the lives of miners and their families. His first book These Poor Hands was acclaimed by critics such as J. B. Priestley and Cyril Connolly and is considered to be among the most authentically vivid accounts ever written about mining. It describes with moving simplicity the harsh conditions in which he and his comrades worked and lived and the bond which existed between them in the face of poverty, hunger, danger and death. These Poor Hands was followed by several other books, all consistent in their philosophy, style and integrity - there is no hint of sentimentality, just immense sympathy for the miners' lot, its hardship and its humour. As the Times Literary Supplement noted in 1974, 'he was one of the few proletarian writers of the 1930s who were impressive as writers rather than proletarians'. As a result of his success Coombes became a frequent broadcaster and his Plan for Britain was published in the Picture Post. This excellent introduction to the life and work of Bert Coombes is valuable not just for its penetrating assessment of Coombes, but for the light that it sheds on the social and industrial context in which he lived. His writing articulated the social and economic injustice of contemporary capitalism and has enduring value because of the way in which it gives imaginative expression to the belief that working people should have greater control over their well-being and destiny.

A Bibliography of Industrial Relations

A Bibliography of Industrial Relations PDF Author: G. S. Bain
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521215473
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 700

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Book Description
Reference book comprising a bibliography aiming to bring together secondary source interdisciplinary material on labour relations in the UK between the years 1880 and 1970 - covers employees attitudes, trade unions and employees associations, employers organizations, the labour market and working conditions, etc.

New Perspectives on Modern Wales

New Perspectives on Modern Wales PDF Author: Sabine Asmus
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527524388
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This book discusses issues of Welsh literature, history and the vernacular language of the devolved region of Wales (as a part of the United Kingdom of Northern Ireland and Great Britain). In this context, the volume sheds light on various aspects of the identity construction of a small nation with an endangered language, which is a P-Celtic tongue, known for exhibiting many features alien to Indo-European and SAE languages. All the issues tackled here are presented in diachronic and synchronic perspective, allowing for correlations to be drawn with similar problems faced by other cultures. As such, the volume will be of interest to anyone promoting Wales and Welsh culture within and outside the country, as well as journalists, politicians, linguists, literary scholars, historians, and those interested in areal studies focusing on the UK.

The Absent-Minded Imperialists

The Absent-Minded Imperialists PDF Author: Bernard Porter
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191513415
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
The British empire was a huge enterprise. To foreigners it more or less defined Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its repercussions in the wider world are still with us today. It also had a great impact on Britain herself: for example, on her economy, security, population, and eating habits. One might expect this to have been reflected in her society and culture. Indeed, this has now become the conventional wisdom: that Britain was steeped in imperialism domestically, which affected (or infected) almost everything Britons thought, felt, and did. This is the first book to examine this assumption critically against the broader background of contemporary British society. Bernard Porter, a leading imperial historian, argues that the empire had a far lower profile in Britain than it did abroad. Many Britons could hardly have been aware of it for most of the nineteenth century and only a small number was in any way committed to it. Between these extremes opinions differed widely over what was even meant by the empire. This depended largely on class, and even when people were aware of the empire, it had no appreciable impact on their thinking about anything else. Indeed, the influence far more often went the other way, with perceptions of the empire being affected (or distorted) by more powerful domestic discourses. Although Britain was an imperial nation in this period, she was never a genuine imperial society. As well as showing how this was possible, Porter also discusses the implications of this attitude for Britain and her empire, and for the relationship between culture and imperialism more generally, bringing his study up to date by including the case of the present-day USA.