A controversial new investigation in the 1984 Miners strike and how it changed Modern Britain. The Miners' strike was a dividing line in Modern British history. Before 1984, Britain was an industrial nation, reborn from the ashes of the Second World War by Clement Atlee's vision of a welfare state. Most of the great industries were nationalised and the trade unions was one of the major forces in the land. After the strike, which ended with humiliating defeat in March 1985, Thatcher's Britain was born. In March 1984, the leader of the Miners' Union, Arthur Scargill, led his members out of the pits without a ballot to protest at planned pit closures; they would spend the next 13 months facing the utmost deprivations as they fought to keep their jobs. On picket lines the miners faced harassment and the police, which culminated in the violent Battle of Orgreave. Meanwhile Thatcher's government feared that Britain was on the verge of a civil war. It was a struggle of attrition that neither side could dare lose. Twenty five years after the strike, the debate is still controversial. Marching to the Faultline tells the full story of the strike from confidential cabinet meetings at Downing Street to backroom negotiations, and life on the picket line. The book draws on previously unseen sources from interviews with the major figures, private archives and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to set the record straight.

Excerpt from The Times History of the War in South Africa, Vol. 1: 1899-1900 In the present volume I have endeavoured to set before the reader a full account of the relations between the Imperial Government and the Dutch Republics in South Africa, of the causes that led up to the final crisis, and of the protracted negotiations which preceded the outbreak of the great South African War. No study of the military operations themselves can be complete without at least some slight knowledge of the political situation of which the war was the outcome. The ultimatum, the invasion of Natal, the rebellion in Cape Colony, the part played in the war by the Uitlander corps, the stubbornness of the resistance offered by the Boers, the annexation of them territories, arc all matters which can only be understood in the light of previous events. This, and the fact that no adequate connected account of all the circumstances leading up to the war, has as yet appeared, will, I venture to think, be sufficient justification for prefixing this introductory volume to the series of volumes which arc to narrate the course of the military operations. The subject has been treated, as far as possible, from the historical point of view, though at so short an interval of time from the events themselves it is impossible altogether, on some occasions, to avoid a controversial tone. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.