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Guardian
obituary by Donald Sassoon
Independent
obituary by Geoffrey Goodman
Foreword by Eric Hobsbawm, Afterword by Hywel Francis
Arthur Horner (1894-1968) was a miners’ leader from the 1926 general strike to his retirement as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1959. During his life he played a crucial role in the fight for a national mineworkers union, and in the development of the National Coal Board; he was a champion of the Republicans in Spain; he was imprisoned several times for his views; and he was in constant demand as a speaker. But it was his warmth, good humour and enthusiasm which made ‘little Arthur’, as he was affectionately known by his union colleagues, really memorable.
Coming from a working-class family, and being forced by poverty to leave school at the age of eleven, Horner devoted his life to the struggle for socialism. He was a committed communist, but was also able to exercise effective leadership in a major trade union committed to social democratic principles, playing a key role in the social democratic settlement after the second world war. This biography documents admirably the major contribution Horner made to trade unionism, and to the creation of a social democratic commonwealth in postwar Britain.
‘Nina
Fishman’s book is, at last, a worthy record of the significant contributions to
the working class and the history of twentieth century Britain by a very remarkable
man.’
Eric Hobsbawm
‘Arthur
Horner was a towering, but also a paradoxical figure – a lifelong Communist and
fearless champion of his people, who was also an industrial statesman trusted
by employers and governments alike. Nina Fishman’s biography brings him to life,
with all his baffling complexities. She combines meticulous scholarship, psychological
insight and mastery of the complex economic and political context. In doing so
she has filled a major gap in British labour history.’
Professor
David Marquand, former Principal, Mansfield College, Oxford
‘Nina Fishman’s biography
of Arthur Horner fills an important gap in the history of coal-mining trade unionism
in Wales, Britain and internationally. Arthur Horner was one of the outstanding
trade union leaders of the twentieth century … the key figure in the creation
of the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Board in the post-war
period. His contribution was a lasting one, much admired by succeeding generations
of union leaders. Nina Fishman has faithfully and critically recorded this in
rich detail.’
Hywel Francis, MP for Aberavon
‘Had
he not insisted on remaining a member of the Communist Party Horner would almost
certainly have been a Labour Cabinet Minister and perhaps a chairman of the National
Coal Board. In any event he was the most remarkably talented general secretary
of the post-war National Union of Mineworkers when that union was at the height
of its powers. Professor Nina Fishman’s magnum opus biography of Horner will have
lasting status as a classic historic work on this truly giant figure of the British
labour movement. It is a superb work of research, analysis and wisdom.
Geoffrey Goodman
Nina
Fishman was Professor of Industrial and Labour Movement History at Westminster
University from 2004-2007 and Honorary Research Professor in the Department of
History and Classics at Swansea University from 2007-2009. She has written widely
on labour movement history. Her previous publications include The British Communist
Party and the Trade Unions 1933-1945 (1995); and (as co-editor, with Geoff
Andrews and Kevin Morgan) Opening the Books: Essays on the Cultural and Social
History of the Communist Party (1995).
Volume 1 1894-1944
(Hardback
)
£35
ISBN
9781 907103 056, 608pp Publication date March 2010
Volume
2 1944-1968 (Hardback
) £35
ISBN 9781 907103 063, 608pp
Publication
date March 2010
Volume
1 1894-1944 (Paperback) £22.50
ISBN 9781 907103 070, 608pp Publication
date October 2010
Volume
2 1944-1968 (Paperback)
£22.50
ISBN 9781 907103 087, 608pp Publication
date October 2010
Boxed
set (2 volumes, paperback) £55
ISBN 9781 907103 087 094, 608pp each volume
Publication
date October 2010
All rights Lawrence & Wishart January 2010