When the Clyde Ran Red: A Social History of Red Clydeside

Description

When the Clyde Ran Red paints a vivid picture of the heady days when revolution was in the air on Clydeside. Through the bitter strike at the huge Singer Sewing machine plant in Clydebank in 1911, Bloody Friday in Glasgow's George Square in 1919, the General Strike of 1926 and on through the Spanish Civil War to the Clydebank Blitz of 1941, the people fought for the right to work, the dignity of labour and a fairer society for everyone. They did so in a Glasgow where overcrowded tenements stood no distance from elegant tea rooms, art galleries, glittering picture palaces and dance halls. Red Clydeside was also home to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Glasgow Style and magnificent exhibitions showcasing the wonders of the age. Political idealism and artistic creativity were matched by industrial endeavor: the Clyde built many of the greatest ships that ever sailed, and Glasgow locomotives pulled trains on every continent on earth. In this book Maggie Craig puts the politics into the social context of the times and tells the story with verve, warmth and humour."Readers will be swept along into this compelling narrative by Craig's lively and buoyant style. Hopefully a copy has found its way into the Scottish parliament, where it should be compulsory reading." - Aberdeen Press and Journal"... a moving story told with enthusiasm and full of timely reminders about history and repetition." - Sunday HeraldMaggie Craig is the author of the acclaimed Damn' Rebel Bitches: The Women of the '45 and Bare-Arsed Banditti: The Men of the '45, as well as several historical novels set in Glasgow and Edinburgh. A native of Glasgow, she now lives with her husband and two children in Aberdeenshire.