Editing Labor history (section)

==United Kingdom==
Kirk (2010) surveys labor historiography in Britain since the formation of the Society for the Study of Labour History in 1960. He reports that labor history has been mostly pragmatic, eclectic and empirical; it has played an important role in historiographical debates, such as those revolving around history from below, institutionalism versus the social history of labor, class, populism, gender, language, postmodernism and the turn to politics. Kirk rejects suggestions that the field is declining, and stresses its innovation, modification and renewal. Kirk also detects a move into conservative insularity and academicism. He recommends a more extensive and critical engagement with the kinds of comparative, transnational and global concerns increasingly popular among labor historians elsewhere, and calls for a revival of public and political interest in the topics.<ref>Neville Kirk, "Challenge, Crisis, and Renewal? Themes in the Labour History of Britain, 1960–2010," ''Labour History Review,'' Aug 2010, Vol. 75, Issue 2, pp. 162–180</ref> Meanwhile, Navickas, (2011) examines recent scholarship including the histories of collective action, environment and human ecology, and gender issues, with a focus on work by James Epstein, [[Malcolm Chase]], and Peter Jones.<ref>Katrina Navickas, "What happened to class? New histories of labour and collective action in Britain," ''Social History,'' May 2011, Vol. 36, Issue 2, pp. 192–204</ref>

Outside the Marxist orbit, social historians paid a good deal of attention to labor history as well.<ref>John McIlroy, "Asa Briggs and the Emergence of Labour History in Post-War Britain." ''Labour History Review'' 77.2 (2012): 211–242.</ref>

Addison notes that in Britain by the 1990s, labor history was, "in sharp decline", because:
:there was no longer much interest in history of the white, male working-class.  Instead the 'cultural turn' encouraged historians to explore wartime constructions of gender, race, citizenship and national identity.<ref>Paul Addison and Harriet Jones, eds. '' A Companion to Contemporary Britain: 1939–2000'' (2005) p. 4</ref>