This is the third and final volume in the authoritative History of the British Trade Unions since 1889. It covers the years between 1934 and 1951. These years saw gradual recovery from the world-wide economic depression, the Second World War, and its aftermath of austerity and development. It was a period of great achievement for the labour movement.

Hugh Armstrong Clegg traces the story of the trade unions, their policies, their leaders, and their relations with government. Professor Clegg carefully sets his study against the economic and political background of the period, and provides a wealth of valuable detail. This is a comprehensive and dispassionate account by a leading authority on British trade unions and their history, which will be an important source for all historians of the labour movement in Britain.