John Holford has been Robert Peers Professor of Adult Education at the University of Nottingham since 2007. He wrote Reshaping Labour while working as a Tutor-Organiser for the Workers' Educational Association in North Kent. Subsequently he taught in adult education at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Surrey, where he was later founding head of the Politics department.

First published in 1988. This is a grass-roots study of a key period in the building of Labour's political and industrial base. It is a study of how unions and Labour were organised and motivated to seize their moments of destiny - and of how a new political industrial movement was limited by the common-sense of the age in which it was born.

List of Tables and Figures; Abbreviations; Preface; 1. Introductory 2. Edinburgh After the Great War 3. Standard of Living and the Working Class 4. Economic Development and the Organisation of Work 5. Employers' Strategies and the Control of Work 6. Trade Union Development: Motivation and Organisation 7. Labour Politics and the Impact of War 8. The Reorganisation of Labour 1917-21 9. The Struggle for Labour Politics 10. Conclusion; Appendix; Select Bibliography