Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the sudden upsurge of trade unionism in the 1880s, and examines the factors which made it possible. It demonstrates that in many cases strikes formed the nucleus of union organization, or at least provided an important stimulus for membership growth. The book explains how the different conditions under which trade unions developed in the two countries have led German and British labour historians to approach their subject from rather different vantage-points. The explosive growth of the New Unionism in Great Britain is usually interpreted as a direct result of the great London dockers' strike. The book describes the expansion of unions was not a continuous process, but took place in waves, against the background of a rapidly changing economy and the vicissitudes of the labour market.