Chris Wrigley

Contact

• workRoom A5 Lenton Grove
  King's Meadow Campus
  Lenton Lane
  Nottingham
  NG7 2NR
  UK
• chris.wrigley@nottingham.ac.uk

Expertise Summary

See 'Past Research'. Past supervisions include the British Labour Party, the British Communist Party, hostility to Jewish people, 1914-22, refugee Jewish servicemen,1939-45, the coal industry, 1840-1939, the co-op movement, the hosiery industry, the government and industrial relations, mid twentieth century rural communities, women and philanthropy,and Mau Mau.

Teaching Summary

The modules I teach reflect some of the major areas of my research interests. My Year 3 undergraduate Special Subject is 'The Great War and its Aftermath: Britain 1914-1929'. My Year 3 option is… read more

Research Summary

My current research centres on The coal industry 1982-2002; the economic and social history of Britain since 1945. Past research includes the careers of major British political figures. This resulted… read more

The modules I teach reflect some of the major areas of my research interests. My Year 3 undergraduate Special Subject is 'The Great War and its Aftermath: Britain 1914-1929'. My Year 3 option is 'Labour's Rise,Growth and Defeat; Britain, Germany and Russia 1889-1936',acomparative history course which Dick Geary and I developed from 1989. In Year 2 I teach 'From Gladstone to Asquith: Britain 1868-1914,a primarily political history course. In Year 1 I lecture on 'The Origins and Development of the UK Economy Since 1750', an economic and business history course in the Business School. I also give Year 1 lectures on twentieth century European history. My MA modules are 'A.J.P. Taylor' (an historiographical option) and 'Gladstone and Late Victorian Politics: Home and Abroad, 1876-1894'.

He has been Director, Assistant Director or Joint Director of CIBHI ( University of Nottingham Centre for International Business History) since 2001

Current Research

My current research centres on The coal industry 1982-2002; the economic and social history of Britain since 1945. Past research includes the careers of major British political figures. This resulted in books and essays on Lloyd George, Arthur Henderson, Winston Churchill, Ramsay Macdonald, Ernest Bevin, W.E. Gladstone, William Morris, Ben Turner, John Burns, Tom Mann, Beatrice Webb, Katherine Bruce Glasier, John Cronin and other socialists and trade unionists . There have also been books and essays on historians and literary figures such as A.J.P. Taylor, William Barnes and Beatrix Potter. In addition, I have conducted research on the history of British industrial relations since 1875. This has included books on trade unions and essays on the labour market and on women and work. In addition there have been publications in business history, dealing with the Ministry of Munitions, the wool and the coal industries.There has also been work on the history of the international economy, notably a book on the impact of the First World War. I have also researched on the area of comparative labour and social history. This includes Europe 1917-20, red May Days, the co-operative movement as well as industrial relations.

Supervision

Past supervisions include the British Labour Party, the British Communist Party, hostility to Jewish people, 1914-22, refugee Jewish servicemen,1939-45, education in the First World War, the coal industry, 1840-1939, the co-op movement, the hosiery industry, the government and industrial relations, mid twentieth century rural communities, women and philanthropy,and Mau Mau.

The PhD students who I am currently supervising are as follows:

Barry Johnson

Valerie Willcocks

Katie Haessly

Stephen Lamont (jointly)

Warren Dockter

Conferences

Conference papers:

'Gladstone and Labour', Gladstone Bicentenary Conference, Chester, 9 July 2009

'Anguish and Admiration: William Barnes and Rural Society', William Barnes Society, Dorchester, 27 June 2009

'Labour dealing with Labour: the government's relations with the trade unions', The Second Labour Government Conference, University of Anglia Ruskin, 29 May 2009

'Wars and British Trade Unions 1899-1945', Trade Unions in British History Conference, university of Leeds, 14 May 2009

'The People's Pensions: From Liberal Social Reforms to the Welfare State', The Historical Association Annual Conference, Leicester University, 9 May, 2009.

'Industrial Shutdown and Industrial Heritage', Association of Business Historians conference, Birmingham University, 5 June 2008

'Perspectives on Communities and Networks' (round table contribution), Historical Perspectives Postgraduate conference, Glasgow University, 23 May 2008

'After the great coal strike: the government, management and strikes 1985-92', Economic History conference, Nottingham University, 29 March 2008

'A J P Taylor: Radical Historian of Europe', History research seminar, Leicester University, 30 January 2008

'The commemorative urge: marking the co-operative past', plenary session paper at the 'Taking Stock', Society for the Study of Labour History conference, Pump House Museum, Manchester, 14 March 2005

'Trade unions and the 1964 general election', paper at the 1964 general election conference', Manchester Metropolitan University, 5 November 2004

'Industrial unrest after the 1984-5 miners' strike', paper at ' The Miners' Strike Twenty Years On' conference, University of Northumbria, 12 July 2004

'Strikes in the British coal industry 1985-2000', paper at the annual conference of the Association of Business Historians, Nottingham University, 26 June 2004

'Women and Work in Europe since the 1880s', paper at 'Slavery and Labour' conference, Tiradentes, Brazil, 23 March 2004.

'A J P Taylor and his History', paper at History research seminar, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2 December 2003.

'Trade unions and industrial relations in Europe since 1888', paper at research seminars, Unicamp, 26 March, University of Belo Horizonte, 2 April, and at University of Niteroi,Brazil, 10 April 2003

'AJP Taylor: the Louth connection', paper at the Louth Antiquity Society, Louth, 8 October 2002

'Lloyd George as Social Reformer', paper at History conference, University of Middlesborough, 25 September 2002

'Gladstone and Lloyd George', paper at the Gladstone conference, St Deiniols Library, Hawarden, 14 July 2002.

'History and its public audience', paper at British Academy colloquium, Sheffield University, 16 March 2002

'British trade unions, Centre 42 and culture in the 1960s', paper at the European trade unionism 1960-80 conference, CRMS, Sorbonne, Paris, 2001

'What about the workers? British trade unionism 1825-68', paper at History conference, University of East Anglia, 28 March 2001

'AJP Taylor and European history', paper at research seminar, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 12 February 2001.

'Churchill and the trade unions', paper at the ' Twenty First Century Churchill' conference, Royal Historical Society, London, 12 January 2001

Public lectures

'The People's Pensions: From Liberal Social Reforms to the Welfare State', The Historical Association Annual Conference, Leicester University, 9 May, 2009

'British coal and its strikes, 1985-92', keynote lecture at the Modern British History conference, Strathclyde University, 20 June 2007

'The transformation of Labour 1914-23', keynote lecture at the Centenary of the Labour Party conference, Huddersfield University, 15 November 2006

'AJP Taylor, History and the Historical Association, concluding lecture at the Historical Association's Centenary Day, The Banqueting Hall, Whitehall, London, 19 May 2006

'Gladstone', key-note lecture, annual conference of the Historical Association, Liverpool, 18 April 2004

'Sport and Labour', a keynote lecture at the annual History of Sport conference, Leicester De Montfort University, 26 October 2002

'Churchill and ''the enemy within'' : His struggles with Red Perils', the Tim Curtis Memorial Lecture for 2002, University of Central Lancashire, 14 February, 2002

'William Barnes 1801-2001: A historian's view', the bicentenary public lecture, William Barnes Society, Dorchester, 16 June 2