The politics of identity and civil society in Britain and Germany

This study compares the making and remaking of the political identities of the miners’ movements in Britain and Germany. Taking the south Wales and Ruhr coalfields as case studies, it focuses on the public discourse of the trade unions and political parties as it was disseminated in local newspapers, trade union publications, pamphlets and election leaflets. It reveals how the miners’ movements used ideas such as class, religion, the ‘people’ or Volk, socialization and nationalization to construct organizational identities during the turbulent period between 1890 and 1926. These concepts were crucial not only in the formation and self-identity of the miners’ trade unions, but also in the way they interacted with employers and the state. They adapted and changed over time as the miners’ movements reacted to war, economic depression and increasing industrial conflict. The book contends that these identities were not simply the result of structural factors, but were formed at the juncture where cultural, political and sociological forces intersect. Examining this intersection through discourse analysis and the concept of the ‘lifeworld’, the book brings together the social world of the miners and the realm of organized politics to advance historical understanding of two of the most important elements in the most powerful labour movements in Europe.