First published in 1988. This collection of essays examines aspects of labour and industrial relations history in the textiles sector of Northern England during the mature phase of industrialisation before World War One and the period of retrenchment during the interwar economic recession.

List of Tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part One: Employers and Employers' Organisations; 1. Cotton Employers' Organisations and Labour Relations, 1890-1939 Arthur McIvor 2. Pragmatism vs. Principle: Cotton Employers and the Origins of an Industrial Relations System Andrew Bullen 3. Protecting the Interests of the Trade: Wool Textile Employers' Organisations in the 1920s Irene Magrath 4. Cotton Employers and Industrial Welfare between the Wars Steve Jones; Part Two: Trade Unions and Labour; 5. The Retardation of Trade Unionism in the Yorkshire Worsted Textile Industry Tony Jowitt 6. Lancashire Cotton Trade Unionism in the Inter-war Years Alan Fowler 7. Work, Wages and Industrial Relations in Cotton Finishing, 1880-1914 Arthur McIvor; Part Three: Women in Textiles; 8. Skill and the Sexual Division of Labour in the West Riding Textile Industry, 1850-1914 Deirdre Busfield 9. Women and Industrial Militancy: The 1875 Heavy Woollen Dispute Marie Bottomley 10. "Well Fitted for Females." Women in the Macclesfield Silk Industry Jill Norris 11. Women and Work in the Lancashire Cotton Industry, 1890-1939 Michael Savage; Select Bibliography; Notes on Contributors; Index