2024/09/25 by Peter Ackers · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Arts and Humanities · #Political and Economic history of UK and US #Historical Economic and Social Studies #French Historical and Cultural Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.31273/eirj.v11i4.1581
openalex publication_date 2024/09/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The Warwick Industrial Relations (IR) academics, George Bain and Hugh Clegg, were key movers in founding the Modern Records Centre (MRC) & attracting the unique collection of trade union and employers' records. In the late 1960s, after his crucial role on the 1965-68 'Donovan' Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations, Clegg was recruited from Nuffield College, Oxford to become a founding professor in what became Warwick Business School. He won SSRC funding to bring the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) to Warwick, which became the national centre for the field, with a global reputation, at a time when IR was arguably the central UK domestic issue. Leadership of the IRRU passed to George Bain, then Willy Brown. After retirement, Clegg then used the MRC for the final two volumes of his landmark A History of British Trade Unions since 1889 (Oxford University Press 1985, 1994). Based on interviews with the archivist, Richard Storey, George Bain and other members of the 'Warwick School', my paper will discuss: (1) the formation of Warwick School IR; (2) Bain & Clegg's influence on the MRC; and (3) Clegg's writing on trade union history. In 2003, I co-edited a study of academic IR Understanding Work & Employment (OUP) & for the past 20 years I've published widely on Hugh Clegg. My full biography with Routledge is now out.