Forging Ahead: Austerity to Prosperity in the Black Country, 1945-1968 (History West Midlands, 2021)
The Black Country was pivotal to Britain’s rapid shift from austerity to prosperity in the two decades after World War Two. This book celebrates the exciting times and the vital role of the region in the post-war period, and reveals the evolving landscape and diversifying population of this powerful industrial hub. Lavishly illustrated with images from the Black Country Living Museum’s photographic collection, Forging Ahead tells the story of an industrial region and its people moving from austerity to prosperity, and playing a key role in the history of post-war Britain.
John Hinks’ review of Forging Ahead for Midland History can be found here. A short film and podcasts outlining the themes and images from Forging Ahead can be found on History West Midlands’ website.
Available from History West Midlands, Amazon, or the Black Country Living Museum shop.
In 1971, Bangladeshis from Birmingham were at the forefront of the campaign to raise awareness of the war in their home country, and the campaign for independence from Pakistan. 50 Years of Bangla Brummies forms part of an oral history run by Purbanat CIC celebrating this history, and tells the story of the Bangla Brummies who raised the flag of the new nation for the first time outside of Bangladesh, and whose hard work helped secure the new nation’s freedom.
Other publications
- ‘Immigration’, in The Black Country: A History In 100 Objects, edited by Malcolm Dick, David J Eveleigh and Janet Sullivan (Black Country Living Museum, 2019)
- ‘BCLM Forging Ahead: building a new urban history of the Black Country’, Urban History 48(2), 2020: 334-350
- ‘BCLM: Forging Ahead at Black Country Living Museum’, Midland History 47(2), 2022: 208–10.
- ‘“Like a pack of ravening wolves after their prey”: Dudley’s riots, 1962,’ Blackcountryman 55(2), 2022: 74-78
- ‘Recreating the Elephant & Castle at the Black Country Living Museum’, Blackcountryman 55(4), 2022: 54-58
Me at other places:
- BBC Free Thinking, broadcast 22 September 2022
- BAVS blog: Wolverhampton and the urban text and Maps, modernities and false economies
- MBS blog: What’s so subversive about peace, love, and understanding?
- Black Country Living Museum blog posts:
- Understanding Dudley’s Race Riots part 1: what happened
- Understanding Dudley’s Race Riots part 2: the contexts
- Five black lives in the Black Country
- “Don’t Pay!” The 1913 Wolverhampton rent strike
- Black Country objects at the 1951 Festival of Britain (with Dr Jenny Gilbert)
- Profile in Irish Post, 19 August 2015
- Profile at Unstable Praxis, 9 April 2016
- Interview with Irish In Britain, 13 October 2020
- Interview with Express & Star, 21 July 2021
For a full academic CV including details of papers presented at conferences, see here.