Writing the 1926 General Strike

Reviews / Votes

'This is an exemplary book which does exactly what it says on the tin ... an excellent work of literary analysis and an even better demonstration of the continuing richness of Marxist scholarship.' Bob Light, International Socialism '... Writing the 1926 General Strike should be commended for the intricacy and persuasiveness of its arguments. Ferrall and McNeill succeed in the impressive task of making sense of a wealth of material while faithfully 'resist[ing] the temptation to homogenise, to press the wayward material of the writing of the General Strike into one stable story and moral fable' ... A reader of this work can be assured to come away with a much more subtle understanding of this seminal event, which has suffered the ignominy of transformation into 'one of the signifiers of a particular comforting narrative of Englishness and English history ...' Mika Vale, Critical Quarterly '... Ferrall and McNeill's book offers a captivating reading of a single historical event: the nine-day national strike of 1926, which the authors scrutinize as a benchmark in British political thought between the wars. ... a vital resource not only for understanding the conflicted literary history of British labour in the 1920s and after, but also for writing literary history more generally.' The Year's Work in English Studies