Jonathan Schneer – författare

The General Strike of 1926: the tragic story of how the world's best organized working class confronted the world's most powerful, and self-confident, government.In May, 1926, nearly three million British workers downed tools to support nearly one million of their countrymen, miners whose employers meant to lengthen their working day and cut their pay. This General Strike brought the country to a grinding halt - which, according to Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, represented a threat not merely to the nation but to the parliamentary system itself. For nine days, the world's best organized working class confronted the world's most powerful, and self-confident, government. And yet the outcome was never in doubt, for Britain's most important trade-union leaders thought as Baldwin did, although they kept saying they were engaged in a wages dispute only. Really, they feared winning even more than they feared losing.In Nine Days in May, award-winning author and historian Jonathan Schneer mines hitherto untapped archival sources to explain why and how the Strike came about, why and how it was waged and countered, why and how it ended. In addition to government reports and TUC reports, he uses reports of undercover agents and spies, "special" constables sworn in for the duration of the Strike, volunteer strike-breakers, Communist agitators, trade-union leaders and rank-and-file members of trade unions; also, of course, the papers of politicians of all parties.This is a tale of Shakespearian dimensions, replete with tragic heroes and villains and buffoons and opportunists and double-dealers, and contending, evenly matched, forces - both of which meant to do their duty whatever the cost. There may never be another general strike in Britain, but the General Strike of 1926 was one for the ages, illuminating the human condition.

During the spring and summer of 1918, with World War I still undecided, British, French and American agents in Russia developed a breathtakingly audacious plan. Led by Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, a dashing, cynical, urbane 30-year-old Scot, they conspired to overthrow Lenin's newly established Bolshevik regime, and to install one that would continue the war against Germany on the Eastern Front. Lockhart's confidante and chief support, with whom he engaged in a passionate love affair, was the mysterious, alluring Moura von Benkendorff, wife of a former aide-de-camp to the Tsar. The plotters' chief opponent was 'Iron Felix' Dzerzhinsky. He led the Cheka, 'Sword and Shield' of the Russian Revolution and forerunner of the KGB. Dzerzhinsky loved humanity - in the abstract. He believed socialism represented humanity's best hope. To preserve and protect it he would unleash unbounded terror.Revolutionary Russia provided the setting for the ensuing contest. In the back streets of Petrograd and Moscow, in rough gypsy cabarets, in glittering nightclubs, in cells beneath the Cheka's Lubianka prison, the protagonists engaged in a deadly game of wits for the highest possible stakes - not merely life and death, but the outcome of a world war and the nature of Russia's post-war regime. Confident of success, the conspirators set the date for an uprising, September 8, 1918, but the Cheka had penetrated their organization and pounced just beforehand. The Lockhart Plot was a turning point in world history, except it failed to turn. At a time when Russian meddling in British and American politics now sounds warning bells, however, we may sense its reverberations and realize that it is still relevant.

During the spring and summer of 1918, with World War I still undecided, British, French and American agents in Russia developed a breathtakingly audacious plan. Led by Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, a dashing, cynical, urbane 30-year-old Scot, they conspired to overthrow Lenin's newly established Bolshevik regime, and to install one that would continue the war against Germany on the Eastern Front. Lockhart's confidante and chief support, with whom he engaged in a passionate love affair, was the mysterious, alluring Moura von Benkendorff, wife of a former aide-de-camp to the Tsar.The plotters' chief opponent was 'Iron Felix' Dzerzhinsky. He led the Cheka, 'Sword and Shield' of the Russian Revolution and forerunner of the KGB. Dzerzhinsky loved humanity - in the abstract. He believed socialism represented humanity's best hope. To preserve and protect it he would unleash unbounded terror.Revolutionary Russia provided the setting for the ensuing contest. In the back streets of Petrograd and Moscow, in rough gypsy cabarets, in glittering nightclubs, in cells beneath the Cheka's Lubianka prison, the protagonists engaged in a deadly game of wits for the highest possible stakes - not merely life and death, but the outcome of a world war and the nature of Russia's post-war regime.Confident of success, the conspirators set the date for an uprising, September 8, 1918, but the Cheka had penetrated their organization and pounced just beforehand. The Lockhart Plot could have been a turning point in world history. Instead, its failure has left us with one of the great 'what ifs?' of twentieth century history, which is why it has until now remained shrouded in mystery. But it was a plot on whose outcome rested both the fate of the Revolution and the future shape of world history - and the story behind it is a thrilling one that continues to resonate in the early 21st century.

The Thames is liquid history' John Burns MP (1858-1943)As the silver thread woven through Britain's centuries, the Thames is the subject of this significant biography. Following its course, geologically and chronologically, THE THAMES will chart the growing importance of the river and some of the dramatic historic events it was central to. Since Tudor times, the Thames has been a key factor in our understanding of the British nation. At Runnymede, in a field by the river, England's barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. At Tilbury, on the banks of the Thames, in 1588, Elizabeth exhorted her troops to defy the Spanish Armada. In dockland, in east London, in 1940, local residents absorbed the full fury of Hitler's dreaded Luftwaffe. Hitler tried, and failed, to destroy the Port of London, symbol of British commercial power, reservoir of the material needed to fuel and fund the British war effort. This is a book about a river, but also about the evolution, though not always smooth, of a national identity.

First Published in 1982, Social Conflict and the Political Order in Modern Britain offers a selection of work on British social history done by scholars working in a distinctly American context. The authors strongly feel that the way forward in social history is not some retreat into still more detailed, apolitical history, nor a move away from social analysis back towards a study of the purely political. Rather, it seems that the most fruitful path to follow is to build upon the strengths and achievements of the previous social history with a view towards theorizing its political significance while struggling to create a new kind of political history that will be more integrally social.The book brings important themes like Britain and the social movements; strikes and the urban hierarchy in English industrial towns; British dockers during First World War; the British Labour and the Cold War; and rethinking labour history and the importance of work. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of labour history, British history, social history and history in general.

First Published in 1982, Social Conflict and the Political Order in Modern Britain offers a selection of work on British social history done by scholars working in a distinctly American context. The authors strongly feel that the way forward in social history is not some retreat into still more detailed, apolitical history, nor a move away from social analysis back towards a study of the purely political. Rather, it seems that the most fruitful path to follow is to build upon the strengths and achievements of the previous social history with a view towards theorizing its political significance while struggling to create a new kind of political history that will be more integrally social.The book brings important themes like Britain and the social movements; strikes and the urban hierarchy in English industrial towns; British dockers during First World War; the British Labour and the Cold War; and rethinking labour history and the importance of work. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of labour history, British history, social history and history in general.

First published in 1982. To study Tillett’s career is to study the modern British labour movement in its formative stages. His rhetoric and activities cast light upon some of the most important periods in labour history. In this book, not only the career of this remarkable and mercurial man is analysed, but our knowledge of the wider scene in which he played so major a role is increased. This title will be of interest to scholars and students of political history.

First published in 1982. To study Tillett’s career is to study the modern British labour movement in its formative stages. His rhetoric and activities cast light upon some of the most important periods in labour history. In this book, not only the career of this remarkable and mercurial man is analysed, but our knowledge of the wider scene in which he played so major a role is increased. This title will be of interest to scholars and students of political history.

First published in 1988. The years 1945-51 were crucial to the Labour Party and the Left in Britain. This elegantly written book traces the gradual and painful disillusionment of the Labour Left with the Attlee governments and analyses the alternative, more militant, programme which the Labour Left devised. Never an organised bloc, the author argues that they are best understood as Labour’s conscience – a militant tendency is the true sense of the words. This title will be of interest to scholars and students of political history.

First published in 1988. The years 1945-51 were crucial to the Labour Party and the Left in Britain. This elegantly written book traces the gradual and painful disillusionment of the Labour Left with the Attlee governments and analyses the alternative, more militant, programme which the Labour Left devised. Never an organised bloc, the author argues that they are best understood as Labour’s conscience – a militant tendency is the true sense of the words. This title will be of interest to scholars and students of political history.

In the middle of the First World War, the British War Cabinet approved and issued a statement in the form of a letter that encouraged the settlement of the Jewish people in Palestine. Signed by the Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, the Balfour Declaration remains one of the most important documents of the last hundred years. Jonathan Schneer explores the story behind the declaration and its unforeseen consequences that have shaped the modern world, placing it in context paying attention to the fascinating characters who conceived, opposed and plotted around it - among them Lloyd George, Lord Rothschild, T.E. Lawrence, Prince Faisal and Aubrey Herbert (the man who was ‘Greenmantle'). The Balfour Declaration brings vividly to life the origins of one of the world's longest lasting and most damaging conflicts.