Jonathan Schneer, "Nine Days in May: The General Strike Of 1926" (Oxford UP, 2026)

In Conversation: An OUP Podcast · Jul 1, 2026 · 1h 15m

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…