Ewan GibbsEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Whatever happened to the working class? A compelling new social history of Britain since 1945 From the picket lines of the Miners' Strike to the Amazon warehouses of today, the British working class has been pushed from the center of political life to its margins, though not without a fight. But how did a force that once shaped nations become invisible? Historian Ewan Gibbs reconstructs what was lost—and what was taken. Through vivid first-hand accounts, he traces the transformation of a class forged in mines and shipyards into one scattered across call centers and gig ec...

Whatever happened to the working class? A compelling new social history of Britain since 1945 From the picket lines of the Miners' Strike to the Amazon warehouses of today, the British working class has been pushed from the center of political life to its margins, though not without a fight. But how did a force that once shaped nations become invisible? Historian Ewan Gibbs reconstructs what was lost—and what was taken. Through vivid first-hand accounts, he traces the transformation of a class forged in mines and shipyards into one scattered across call centers and gig ec...

Whatever happened to the working class? A compelling new social history of Britain since 1945 From the picket lines of the Miners' Strike to the Amazon warehouses of today, the British working class has been pushed from the center of political life to its margins, though not without a fight. But how did a force that once shaped nations become invisible? Historian Ewan Gibbs reconstructs what was lost—and what was taken. Through vivid first-hand accounts, he traces the transformation of a class forged in mines and shipyards into one scattered across call centers and gig economy apps. This is the story of council estates sold off, unions broken, mill towns hollowed out, and a sense of solidarity ground down by decades of insecurity. Yet, as inequality deepens and class roars back into political debate, Gibbs confronts the essential question: who now speaks for labour? Richly researched and deeply humane, An Injury to All : The Unmaking of the British Working Class (Verso, 2026) is the definitive history of British post war working-class life. Ewan Gibbs is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. He writes about energy, industry, work and protest for the London Review of Books , Financial Times, The Times , Prospect , Break Down , Dissent and Jacobin . His first book, Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland , was shortlisted for the Scottish History Book of the Year. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel . Twitter . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Whatever happened to the working class? A compelling new social history of Britain since 1945 From the picket lines of the Miners' Strike to the Amazon warehouses of today, the British working class has been pushed from the center of political life to its margins, though not without a fight. But how did a force that once shaped nations become invisible? Historian Ewan Gibbs reconstructs what was lost—and what was taken. Through vivid first-hand accounts, he traces the transformation of a class forged in mines and shipyards into one scattered across call centers and gig economy apps. This is the story of council estates sold off, unions broken, mill towns hollowed out, and a sense of solidarity ground down by decades of insecurity. Yet, as inequality deepens and class roars back into political debate, Gibbs confronts the essential question: who now speaks for labour? Richly researched and deeply humane, An Injury to All : The Unmaking of the British Working Class (Verso, 2026) is the definitive history of British post war working-class life. Ewan Gibbs is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. He writes about energy, industry, work and protest for the London Review of Books , Financial Times, The Times , Prospect , Break Down , Dissent and Jacobin . His first book, Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland , was shortlisted for the Scottish History Book of the Year. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel . Twitter . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Whatever happened to the working class? A compelling new social history of Britain since 1945 From the picket lines of the Miners' Strike to the Amazon warehouses of today, the British working class has been pushed from the center of political life to its margins, though not without a fight. But how did a force that once shaped nations become invisible? Historian Ewan Gibbs reconstructs what was lost—and what was taken. Through vivid first-hand accounts, he traces the transformation of a class forged in mines and shipyards into one scattered across call centers and gig economy apps. This is the story of council estates sold off, unions broken, mill towns hollowed out, and a sense of solidarity ground down by decades of insecurity. Yet, as inequality deepens and class roars back into political debate, Gibbs confronts the essential question: who now speaks for labour? Richly researched and deeply humane, An Injury to All : The Unmaking of the British Working Class (Verso, 2026) is the definitive history of British post war working-class life. Ewan Gibbs is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. He writes about energy, industry, work and protest for the London Review of Books , Financial Times, The Times , Prospect , Break Down , Dissent and Jacobin . His first book, Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland , was shortlisted for the Scottish History Book of the Year. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel . Twitter . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

[contentblock id=belabored-info-ck] Last week, workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland walked off the job in a wildcat strike over pay. These subcontracted workers, as well as others at oil industry sites around Britain, are just the latest critical infrastructure workers to realize their power after two years of pandemic, when they were deemed essential—and watched industry profits spike—while they accepted pay freezes. This is all happening against a backdrop of swelling anger across Britain as prices, particularly energy prices, spike and are predicted to go even higher this winter. Unions are calling strikes and organizing protests with community groups to demand action. Ewan Gibbs, a historian of energy, industry, work, and protest, a lecturer in global inequalities at the University of Glasgow, and the author of Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland , joins the podcast to talk about the strikes, the history of energy workers’ organizing, new organizing, and renationalizing energy. We also look at the launch of the Enough is Enough campaign, the return of rail strikes across Britain, the ongoing union drives at Starbucks with Starbucks union activists Ben South and Stephanie Heslop, a new bill in California that could move fast food workers toward sectoral bargaining, and wildcat strikes at Amazon. For Argh, we consider the rise of workplace productivity surveillance, and the labor of the crossword-puzzle industry. Thank you for listening to our 253rd episode! If you like the show, you can support us on Patreon with a monthly contribution, at the level that best suits you. If you’re interested in advertising on the show, please email ads@dissentmagazine.org . And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or tips, email us at belabored@dissentmagazine.org News Evie Breese, Amazon wildcat strikes enter second week as UK workers protest over pay ,

In Episode 61 Derek talks to Ewan Gibbs, a lecturer in History at Glasgow University and author of the book Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland. Ewan talks about the deindustrialization in Scotland, his research for his PHD and his forthcoming book. Ewan goes in to detail about the coal mines across Scotland, the poll tax campaign and importance of the Trade Union movement. We discuss the Caterpillar factory protests in Tannochside which had been built on top of a mining village in the 1950s and the 30th anniversary of the protests organised by former Caterpillar workers. Ewans book is due out late February and you can follow him on Twitter for more info @ewangibbs.