The Politics of Identity and Civil Society in Britain and Germany Miners in the Ruhr and South Wales 1890-1926

This study compares the making and remaking of the political identities of the miners' movements in Britain and Germany. Examining this intersection through discourse analysis and the concept of the "lifeworld," this book brings together the miners' social world and the realm of organized politics to advance historical understanding of two of the most powerful European labor movements. Taking the south Wales and Ruhr coalfields as case studies, it focuses on the public discourse of the trade unions and political parties as disseminated in local newspapers, trade union publications, pamphlets, and election leaflets. It reveals how the miners' movements utilized ideas such as class, religion, the "people" or "Volk", socialization, and nationalization to construct organizational identities during the turbulent period between 1890 and 1926.

Leighton James is Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of York