A01=Patrick Duffy
association
Author_Patrick Duffy
Category=AKD
Category=JBCC
Category=JHBL
Category=KCZ
Category=KNTR
Category=NHTB
Chapel Funds
Co-operative Printing Society
compose
Composing Machine
Composing Room
craft skill hierarchy
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Female Compositors
gender exclusion workplace
Graphical Association
Hand Compositor
Hazel Grove
industrial relations Britain
JIC
Labour Aristocracy
Labour Aristocrat
labour history
Manchester Branch
Married Women
master
Master Printers
Mechanical Composition
Mileage Relief
nineteenth century printing
print trade unions
printers
printing
Printing Trade
room
Ship Canal
societies
Stockport Advertiser
trade
Trades Council
tramp
Tramp Relief
typographical
Typographical Society
Typographical Union
Victoria Press
Women Compositors
workplace control compositors
Product details
- ISBN 9780754602552
- Weight: 498g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 28 Dec 2000
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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For the first time since its invention over 500 years ago, the print medium is being challenged as the primary means of recording and communicating ideas. Indeed, within the printing industry itself the advent of digital technology has rendered the craft of hand setting metal type obsolete - the days of the skilled compositor are now at an end. Patrick Duffy’s work sets out to examine the experiences of the skilled compositor in the period 1850 to 1914. Focusing primarily on the workplace and the workplace institutions, it aims to explore issues of control, co-operation and conflict in order to determine if the compositor did, as many labour historians claim, belong to an aristocracy of labour. Drawing on a wide range of source material from trade society minutes to Parliamentary Papers, the author explores the diversity of experience that compositors had in the workplace and the uneven patterns of change that the trade experienced. The study throws light on some of the issues raised by these changes: what part did ancient craft traditions play in the maintenance of control in the workplace? Why were women excluded from this particular work when they were accepted in most other parts of the trade? To what extent did trade society officials represent the aspirations of the rank and file membership? Starting with an overview of the nature, growth and development of the trade, the book goes on to examine the occupational and social aspects of the compositors' experience, with a chapter devoted to women's role in the printing trade. Finally, the formation, functions and development of relevant trades unions and employers' associations is discussed. This insightful analysis of the experience of the skilled compositor provides a valuable case study for labour historians at the same time furthering our understanding of a somewhat neglected aspect of printing history.
Patrick Duffy, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
