The periodicals that puzzled Dickens: The weekly balance sheets of the Preston lock-out, 1853-54

Abstract

Charles Dickens was puzzled and intrigued by a type of print publication which was central to the Preston strike and lock-out of 1853-54 and hundreds of other industrial disputes in the nineteenth century, the strike balance sheet. This first academic study of the periodical genre summarises its structure and contents (a stirring opening address, long lists of donations sent in support of the locked-out workers featuring meaningful and allusive nicknames, snatches of verse, and threats against those who refused to contribute) and examines how it was produced, received and interpreted. Strike balance sheets demonstrated the collective and financial power of the unions, while their creation of an independent, worker-controlled public sphere of print reduced the imbalance of cultural power between workers and masters. They are also significant for what they tell us about the size, spread and consistency of the financial and moral support for the Preston workers, and as snapshots of broader trade union activity across the nation. They reveal intra-class debates and conflicts, and the rhetoric and values of the union leadership and lower-tier district delegates. Most intriguing of all, they make up a large body of print material in which nineteenth-century working-class voices are heard.