ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the aspects of workers' associations in the medieval and early modern period that in some ways anticipated trade unionism. For skilled artisans especially the workplace was a masculine sphere and attitudes to women could veer sharply to misogyny if female participation in the trade concerned threatened to displace men. The book explores when and why these attitudes evolved and looks at how they came to be expressed in the formation of trade societies and trade unions. It relates the development of labour association to accelerating economic and social change in the eighteenth century. The book discusses the ideas concerning apprenticeship, skill, and gender. It focuses on the period 1829-34, perhaps the best-known years in the history of British trade unionism. The book concludes with the overall strength and character of trade unionism in the early 1860s.
