The Tolpuddle Martyrs
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
In the quiet Dorset village of Tolpuddle in 1834, six agricultural labourers made a stand that would shake the foundations of the British establishment and ignite the modern trade union movement. Joyce Marlow's The Tolpuddle Martyrs chronicles the remarkable and deeply unjust story of George Loveless and his companions, who were arrested, tried, and transported to Australia under a largely forgotten law against the taking of secret oaths — their true crime being nothing more than the audacity to organise for a living wage. Marlow brings the precision of a social historian and the narrative urgency of a skilled storyteller to bear on this pivotal episode in working-class history, presenting a portrait of courage, solidarity, and institutional cruelty that resonates far beyond the nineteenth century. Her meticulous research uncovers the political machinations of a ruling class determined to suppress dissent, while simultaneously honouring the dignity and conviction of the men at the story's heart. A powerful reminder that the rights workers take for granted today were purchased at an extraordinary human cost, this account leaves the reader asking: how many more such martyrs have history quietly forgotten?
Author: Joyce Marlow
Format: Hardback
Genre: British & Irish history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
In the quiet Dorset village of Tolpuddle in 1834, six agricultural labourers made a stand that would shake the foundations of the British establishment and ignite the modern trade union movement. Joyce Marlow's The Tolpuddle Martyrs chronicles the remarkable and deeply unjust story of George Loveless and his companions, who were arrested, tried, and transported to Australia under a largely forgotten law against the taking of secret oaths — their true crime being nothing more than the audacity to organise for a living wage. Marlow brings the precision of a social historian and the narrative urgency of a skilled storyteller to bear on this pivotal episode in working-class history, presenting a portrait of courage, solidarity, and institutional cruelty that resonates far beyond the nineteenth century. Her meticulous research uncovers the political machinations of a ruling class determined to suppress dissent, while simultaneously honouring the dignity and conviction of the men at the story's heart. A powerful reminder that the rights workers take for granted today were purchased at an extraordinary human cost, this account leaves the reader asking: how many more such martyrs have history quietly forgotten?