Backbone of the Nation: Mining Communities and the Great Strike of 1984-85

by Robert Gildea

A powerful new history of the Great Strike in the miners’ own voices, based on more than 140 interviews with former miners and their families

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’s mining communities who thought of themselves as the backbone of the nation’s economy. But they were vilified by Margaret Thatcher’s government and eventually deprived of their jobs, their livelihoods, and in some cases, their lives.

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.

Amid the recent wave of industrial action in the United Kingdom, Backbone of the Nation highlights anew the importance of labor organization—and intimately records the triumphs, losses, and resilience of these mining communities.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics

496 pages, Hardcover

First published September 19, 2023

About the author

Robert Nigel Gildea is professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and is the author of several influential books on 20th century French history.

Reviews

[History Today]

In the UK, May and June 2022 were officially a ‘hot strike summer’, in which the context of the country’s cost of living crisis generated popular support for workers’ action and admiration for plain-speaking union leaders such as the RMT’s Mick Lynch. The whole thing seemed underpinned by a certain nostalgia, not least bringing to mind that other ‘hot strike summer’ of 1984.

In his introduction, Robert Gildea notes the resonance of Lynch’s rhetoric as a reason to pay the strike renewed attention. He also acknowledges the breadth of scholarship on the strike, both contemporary reportage and memoirs and more recent explorations: Seumas Milne (1994) on the involvement of state intelligence services, Diarmaid Kelliher (2021) on the cultural links developed between London and the coalfields, and Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson (2021) on the strike’s bleak legacy. All of which might cause us to ask not whether we should now pay attention to the Miners’ Strike, but whether we have paid enough already.

What Backbone of the Nation offers, however, is the first comprehensive oral history of the strike based on new interviews supplemented with archived testimony from across Wales, England and Scotland. It has a cast of ordinary characters (some, like MP and scholar Hywel Francis and activist Anne Scargill, are better known than others) and its objective overview extends to the miners of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire as well as the rock-solid strongholds of Yorkshire and south Wales.

The book’s title is reflected in the opening outline of coal mining’s development in Britain. From our post-industrial perspective, the story is overshadowed by the knowledge of impending disaster, but mining communities at the time of the strike had also glimpsed what was coming. Siân James, whose journey from miner’s wife and activist to MP formed part of the 2014 film Pride, recalls that 1984 had ‘the inevitability of a train wreck’.

Gildea is clear that, although demand for coal had been in decline for decades before Thatcher, the 1984-85 strike was a deliberate act. The intricacies of internal ballots, picketing strategies and tactical divisions across different regions of the coalfield – keenly debated here by contributors – were secondary to the overall desire for a titanic clash of people and state. In preparation, the government stockpiled coal, appointed the hawkish Ian MacGregor as National Coal Board chairman, and drew up a list of colliery closures that would decimate the industry. On the other side, Gildea records an uncompromising generation of young miners, often Marx-reading students of industrial relations, economics and politics, intent on shaking up their union’s staid bureaucracy.

Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.

Rhian E. Jones writes on history and politics.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it’s only forty years since the Miners’ Strike of 1984-5, the political and cultural landscape of the UK has changed so fundamentally since then that it seems to belong to another, more distant, era altogether. I was at a university on the edge of one of the smaller coalfields (one where every mine was threatened with closure) at the time of the strike and I remember it as having the feeling of a long drawn-out death of an altogether different way of life even then. This fine book by Robert Gildea (an eminent historian of France) is an oral history of the impact of the strike on mining communities and in that respect, presumes a basic understanding of the wider context and the chronology of the strike (Jeremy Paxman’s Black Gold would be an excellent introduction). Extensively researched and footnoted, and written with a winning combination of academic rigour and a strong sense for a story and a sensitive ability to let personal and family experiences speak for themselves, this is a timely book. I now live in a much larger ex-coalfield area and the impact on local communities of the strike and the ensuing wholesale withdrawal from coal, is plain to see in the pit villages robbed of their reason for existing.

[Sho · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was involved in an online discussion with some people who have made contributions to this book and it piqued my interest. So i pre-ordered the paperback then promptly forgot until it arrived.

As an adult i studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the Open University. It was very hard, it was a lot of work, there were a lot of tears but it was absolutely one of the very best decisions I've ever made. Before you start on the actual PPE, as with all social-science degrees (I think) at the OU, and one of the modules covered the notion of what the Welsh call Hiraeth, in connection to the miners strike of 1984/85. This word has no direct translation in English, i think maybe Heimat comes close in German. According to one academic* (yeah, i am not doing harvard referencing) "It is a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past."

This book is about the mining communities, the strikers, the non-strikers, those who held out, those who went back to work. The marches, the fund raising, the soup kitchens, the picketing and above all the communities working together to get through that ultimately futile fight. It is remarkable to see the differences in what happened in the different coalfields, how the Welsh seemed to be more of a community, Yorkshire feisty and up for a fight, Scotland a mixture of both. The nearly forgotten Kent mines, the Dirty Thirty in Leicestershire and of course the Nottingham miners who mostly didn't strike.

If you know nothing about the strike, what was going on in the UK at that time or anything at all about the period i think you'll still get a lot out of reading this. As someone who lived through this period, with no skin in the game at all, i can say that a lot of what happened shocked, enraged and infuriated me at the time and again reading about it. But ultimately this is a book about community, about hope. About sheer hard work. And above all: the blinding truth that without the women who supported their families, this would have been much, much worse.

*Boynton, Jessica. "Hiraeth". Eastern Michigan University. Archived from the original on September 12, 2006 (it's in the Wikipedia page about Hiraeth under sources)

[Jake Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate Margaret Thatcher

[R Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read many oral histories before and this one will help encourage me to change that fact. I picked it up as i was familiar with the author from his french history work so knew i was on safe enough hands.

Illuminating life during the miners strike, the book doesn't shy away from the internecine conflict between strikers and strike breakers as well as conflict with the police. Based on testimony at the time and in recent follow ups it is quite effective in giving all the power to the voices of those there with all their honest memories and reflections. Subjective reflections of course bur the volume of voices that come through still give you a genuine flavour of life from South Wales to Durham and Yorkshire and in Nottingham too.

[Aaron Watling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dear Mr Scargill, what’s it like being the most vindicated man in Britain?

Great bottom-up history of the monumental dispute of the post war years. Gildea relies on first hand accounts which is great for hearing directly from miners and their families but it has it’s failings. What I mean by this is he interviews strikebreakers and tries to umm and ahh about it and show neutrality but it’s clear he supported the strikers so he may as well admit it and follow such a line. Furthermore, he hints and whispers about state collusion, agent provocateurs but just leaves it in the quotations and moves on and not really addressing it - but I suppose that’s not necessarily in the scope and aim of this.

Enjoyable

[Paul Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard Robert speak about his book and how he came to research and write it. My mining family in South Yorkshire lived through this and I still have memories and strong feelings on this.

Robert presents this with a balanced perspective and details the conflict within the mining communities whilst exposing the manipulative strategies of the Government and the unacceptable role the Police.

It is good to have a new look at this with the benefit of history and understand the personal stories involved.

[Millie Swainson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fascinating insight into the Miners’ Strike, an event which I am particularly interested in, not least because of my family and local history. I thought the book could have been a bit better written in places and it was sometimes a little difficult to keep track of who’s who given the sheer number of interviewees but apart from that it was a thoroughly enjoyable read; I would recommend this book to anyone interested in hearing personal stories from the strike.

[Rubes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessible and dignified oral history of an infinitely inspiring and pivotal period of British history. The sentiment of resilience during the strike and the decades since comes across emotionally and powerfully. Not 5 stars due to some self-repeating but otherwise a delight.

[Fiona Kitching · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and detailed a little repetitive at times.

[Carol Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book from start to finish!!!!

[Eirik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant.

[David]

A sympathetic and engaging oral history of the strike and its aftermath.

[James Mwendwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longgggg and comprehensive.