Backbone of the Nation: Mining Communities and the Great Strike of 1984-85

A powerful new history of the Great Strike in the miners’ own voices, based on more than 140 interviews with former miners and their families

Forty years ago, Arthur Scargill led the National Union of Mineworkers on one of the largest strikes in British history. A deep sense of pride existed within Britain’s mining communities who thought of themselves as the backbone of the nation’s economy. But they were vilified by Margaret Thatcher’s government and eventually broken: deprived of their j...