Professor Peter Gurney
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Email
pjgurney@essex.ac.uk -
Location
5B.128, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
By appointment
Profile
Biography
I did my postgraduate research at the University of Sussex and taught at Sussex, Brighton, Glamorgan, Sheffield and Huddersfield Universities and the Northern College before coming to Essex. I am currently completing two books: 'National Service Life Stories: masculinity, class, and the memory of conscription in Britain' (under contract to Oxford University Press), and 'The Failure of Co-operation: consumer power and democratic change in modern Britain' (under contract to Manchester University Press). Previous PhD supervision Disability and masculinity in World War One (Dr Wendy Gagen) The Fairtrade movement in modern Britain (Dr Kathryn Wheeler) The provincial department store in interwar Britain (Dr Susan Lomax) Race, femininity and nation in Caribbean beauty contests (Dr Rochelle Rowe: published as 'Imagining Caribbean womanhood: race, nation, and beauty contests, 1929-70'. Manchester University Press, 2013) The history of the London brewing trade, 1750-1850 (Dr Alan Pryor) Drug cultures in London, 1930-70 (Dr Elliott Hicks) British support for the Spanish Republic, 1936-39 (Dr Emily Mason: published as 'Democracy, Deeds and Dilemmas. Support for the Spanish Republic within British Civil Society, 1936-1939'. Sussex Academic Press, 2017) War, crime and popular politics in Essex and Kent, 1790-1820 (Dr Joe Cozens) Post-war tourism in north-east Essex (Dr Sean O'Dell) A social and cultural history of the apple in Victorian England (Joanna Crosby) The culture of International Development in the United Kingdom, 1945-2000 (Christopher Timms) Representations of Bolshevism in Britain after the First World War (Andrew McIntosh) The implementation of the New Poor Law in Suffolk (Angela Miller) Current PhD students Percy Lomax: The decline of the Co-operative movement in postwar London Emma Bastin: The rayon industry in interwar Britain: an economic and cultural history
Qualifications
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BA University of Sussex,
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MA University of Sussex,
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DPhil University of Sussex,
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PGCE University of Leeds,
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Consumerism and consumer movements
Popular politics and popular protest
Working-class culture and autobiography
Current research
Principal Investigator on an oral history research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust (£223k) entitled, 'National Service life stories: masculinity, class and the memory of conscription in Britain.'
The history of consumption and consumer movements
Conferences and presentations
National service and the memory of class in post-war Britain
European Social Science History Conference, University of Gothenburg, 15/4/2023
Chartist electoral politics and the language of democracy
Invited presentation, Northeast Conference on British Studies, Montreal, Canada, 4/10/2019
'The Co-op and the Cold War', Socialism and the Cold War Conference, Queen's University Belfast, 2015.
Belfast, United Kingdom, 2015
'From pacifism to a new world order: the Women's Co-operative Guild and the home front in Britain, 1939-45', Women's History Network Conference, University of Worcester, 2014.
Worcester, United Kingdom, 2014
'The economy in the popular mind in Britain, 1840-1914', British Association of Victorian Studies Conference, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2013.
Invited presentation, 2013
'History and Commitment', Conference marking 50 years of E.P. Thompsons The Making of the English Working Class, Peoples History Museum, Manchester, 2013.
Manchester, United Kingdom, 2013
'The democratic idiom: languages of democracy in Britain, 1830-48', Contested Democracy Conference, Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, 2012.
Paris, France, 2012
'Dickens and Consumer Culture', Royal College of Art, London, 2012.
London, United Kingdom, 2012
'Languages of democracy in England, 1830-48', Two Eras of Democracy Conference, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, 2010.
Invited presentation, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2010
Co-operation and the new consumerism in Britain between the wars, Co-operative Movements in Interwar Europe Conference, University of Bologna, 2009.
Bologna, Italy, 2009
'The iconography of hunger in England during the Hungry Forties,' North American Victorian Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Victoria, B.C., 2007.
Victoria, Canada, 2007
'The politics of consumption in England during the Hungry Forties,' British Association for Victorian Studies Conference, University of Liverpool, 2006.
Liverpool, United Kingdom, 2006
'Consuming politics in post-war Britain', Cultures of Labour Conference, University of Ghent, 2003.
Belgium, 2003
'Scarcity, excess and consumer organising in mid-Victorian England', Nineteenth Century Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Florida, 2003.
Gainesville, United States, 2003
'The Crystal Palace, the working classes and consumer culture in Victorian England', Victorian Exhibitions Conference, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2001.
Santa Cruz, United States, 2001
'Mass consumption and the post-war working-class', Material Politics Conference, University of Cambridge, 1999.
Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1999
'Thomas Frost and the art of escapology in Victorian England', Representing Victorian Lives Conference, University of Leeds, 1999.
Leeds, United Kingdom, 1999
'Observing working-class sexuality in England in the 1930s', Sex, State and Society Conference, University of Umeå, Sweden, 1998.
Umeå, Sweden, 1998
'The politics of working-class consumption in England, 1906-1926', Economic History Society Annual Conference, University of Lancaster, 1996.
Lancaster, United Kingdom, 1996
'Languages of co-operation in Britain, 1860-1914', XI International Economic History Congress, Università Bocconi, Milan, 1994.
Milan, Italy, 1994
'Co-operators, history and the nation', History Workshop 25, Ruskin College, Oxford, 1991.
Oxford, United Kingdom, 1991
'Co-operation and working-class self-expression, 1880-1918', History Workshop 21, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1987.
Newcastle, United Kingdom, 1987
'Internationalism in the British Co-operative Movement, 1869-1917', Internationalism in the European Labour Movement Conference, International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam, 1985.
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1985
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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The Common People: History From Below in Britain 1830-1914 (HR352)
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Research Project (HR831)
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Rethinking History: Approaches, Theories and Concepts (HR924)
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History, Power, and Identity (HR930)
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Sex, War and Class at the Movies: 1930-1960 (HR270)
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The Making of Consumer Culture: Britain 1780-1960 (HR929)
Current supervision
Previous supervision
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 24/5/2024
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 8/1/2021
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 26/6/2020
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 4/9/2019
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 2/7/2019
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Master of Arts (by Dissertation)
Awarded date: 30/9/2016
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 7/6/2016
Degree subject: History
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 17/5/2016
Publications
Journal articles (50)
Gurney, P., (2024). Anat Rosenberg,, The rise of mass advertising : law, enchantment, and the cultural boundaries of British modernity. Journal of British Studies. 63 (3), 1-2
Gurney, P., (2022). Ian Gasse, Something to Build On: The Co-operative Movement in Dumfries, 1847-1914. Labour History Review. 87 (2), 213-214
Gurney, P., (2022). The Marginalization of History. Labour History Review. 87 (3), 277-81
Gurney, P., (2021). Christopher Frank, Workers, Unions and Payment in Kind. The Fight for Real Wages in Britain, 1820-1914. Labour History Review. 86 (2), 277-280
Gurney, P., (2020). Redefining ‘the woman with the basket’: the Women’s Co-operative Guild and the politics of consumption in Britain during World War Two. Gender and History. 32 (1), 189-207
Gurney, P., (2019). ‘Co-operation and Communism cannot work side by side’: organised consumers and the early Cold War in Britain. Twentieth Century British History. 30 (3), 347-374
Gurney, P., (2019). Peter Scott, The Market Makers: creating mass markets for consumer durables in inter-war Britain. The English Historical Review. 134 (571), 1598-1599
Gurney, PJ., (2018). 'Voice of Civilisation': advertising and its critics in austerity Britain. Contemporary British History. 32 (2), 190-208
Gurney, PJ., (2018). Frank Trentmann, Empire of Things. How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-first (London: Allen Lane, 2016). History: the journal of the Historical Association. 103 (2), 307-308
Gurney, PJ., (2018). Noel Thompson, Social Opulence and Private Restraint: The Consumer in British Socialist Thought Since 1800 (Oxford University Press, 2016). Cultural and Social History. 15 (2), 280-281
Gurney, P., (2015). 'The Curse of the Co-ops': Co-operation, the Mass Press and the Market in Interwar Britain. English Historical Review. 130 (547), 1479-1512
Gurney, PJ., (2015). The Age of Veneer: Charles Dickens and the antinomies of Victorian consumer culture. Dickens Quarterly. 32 (3), 229-246
Gurney, PJ., (2015). John Wilson, Anthony Webster and Rachel Vorburg-Rugh, Building Co-operation. a Business History of the Co-operative Group, 1863-2013 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). Economic History Review. 68 (2), 737-739
Gurney, PJ., (2014). The Democratic Idiom: Languages of Democracy in the Chartist Movement. The Journal of Modern History. 86 (3), 566-602
Gurney, PJ., (2014). Emma Griffin, Liberty’s Dawn. A People’s History of the Industrial Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press. 2013). History: the journal of the Historical Association. 99 (4), 704-706
Gurney, PJ., (2014). Sean Nixon, Hard Sell: Advertising, Affluence and Transatlantic Relations, c. 1951-69 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013). Reviews in History
Gurney, PJ., (2013). History and Commitment: E.P. Thompson's Legacy. Labour History Review. 78 (3), 331-349
Gurney, PJ., (2013). Geoffrey Field, Blood, Sweat, and Toil. Remaking the British Working Class, 1939-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). History: the journal of the Historical Association. 98 (3), 476-478
Gurney, PJ., (2012). Co-operation and the "new consumerism" in interwar England. Business History. 54 (6), 905-924
Gurney, PJ., (2012). Nicole Robertson, The Co-operative Movement and Communities in Britain, 1914-1960. Minding Their Own Business (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010). Labour History Review. 77 (3), 375-377
Gurney, PJ., (2012). John Bohstedt, The politics of provisions: food riots, moral economy, and market transition in England, c. 1550 – 1850 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010). Archiv fur Sozialgeschichte. 52
Gurney, PJ., (2012). Lawrence Black and Nicole Robertson (eds.), Consumerism and the co-operative movement in modern British history (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009). Economic History Review. 63 (2), 544-545
Gurney, P., (2012). Co-operation and consumerism in interwar England: transcripts of interviews with co-operative society members from Lancashire and Yorkshire
Gurney, PJ., (2010). Frank Trentmann, Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption, and Civil Society in Modern Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Victorian Studies. 53 (1), 139-140
Gurney, PJ., (2010). Deborah Cohen, Household Gods. The British and their Possessions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006). BBC History Magazine. 11 (2), 74-74
Gurney, PJ., (2010). Krista Lysack, Come Buy, Come Buy: Shopping and the Culture of Consumption in Victorian Women’s Writing (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008). Journal of British Studies. 49 (1), 205-206
Gurney, PJ., (2010). Sean O’Connell, Credit and Community: Working-Class Debt in the UK Since 1880 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Twentieth Century British History. 21 (1), 126-128
Gurney, PJ., (2009). "Rejoicing in Potatoes": The Politics of Consumption in England during the "Hungry Forties". Past and Present. 203 (1), 99-136
Gurney, PJ., (2009). Cooperazione, consumismo di massa e modernità. Gran Bretagna fra le due guerre, Revista della Cooperazione, Terza Serie Trimestrale. 2, 39-71
Gurney, PJ., (2009). Exclusive Dealing in the Chartist Movement. Labour History Review. 74 (1), 90-110
Gurney, PJ., (2009). Une remise en question de l’ “opulence”: le movement coopérative britannique après la Seconde Guerre mondiale [Contesting “affluence”: The British cooperative movement after the Second World War]. Revue Internationale de l’Économie Sociale. 318, 71-89
Gurney, PJ., (2009). Wanting and Having: New Histories of Scarcity and Excess in Modern Britain. Twentieth Century British History. 20 (1), 97-109
Gurney, PJ., (2009). Brian Maidment, Dusty Bob. A Cultural History of Dustmen, 1780–1870 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007). Urban History. 36 (1), 171-172
Gurney, PJ., (2007). Mary Hilson, Political Change and the Rise of Labour in Comparative Perspective: Britain and Sweden 1890–1920 (Oslo: Nordic Academic Press, 2006). Twentieth Century British History. 18 (2), 273-275
Gurney, PJ., (2006). "The sublime of the bazaar": A moment in the making of a consumer culture in mid-nineteenth century England. Journal of Social History. 40 (2), 385-405
Gurney, P., (2006). Working-class writers and the art of escapology in Victorian England: The case of Thomas Frost. Journal of British Studies. 45 (1), 51-71
Gurney, P., (2005). The battle of the consumer in postwar Britain. Journal of Modern History. 77 (4), 956-987
Gurney, PJ., (2005). Alan Burton, The British Consumer Co-operative Movement and Film, 1890s–1960s (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005). Urban History. 32 (3), 541-542
Gurney, PJ., (2005). Dominic Shellard, Kenneth Tynan: a Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003). Contemporary British History. 19 (2), 170-171
Gurney, PJ., (2003). Michael Saler, The Avant-Garde in Interwar England: Medieval Modernism and the London Underground (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). Contemporary British History. 17 (4), 113-114
Gurney, PJ., (2001). Alan Kidd and David Nicholls (eds.), Gender, Civic Culture and Consumerism: Middle-Class Identity in Britain, 1800-1940 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999). Gender and History. 13 (2), 408-409
Gurney, PJ., (1998). W. Hamish Fraser, Alexander Campbell and the Search for Socialism (Manchester: Holyoake Books, 1996). Labour History Review. 63 (2), 229-231
Gurney, PJ., (1997). "Intersex" and "dirty girls": Mass-observation and working-class sexuality in England in the 1930s. Journal of the History of Sexuality. 8 (3), 256-290
Gurney, PJ., (1997). Le debat sur la co-operation dans l'Angleterre Victorienne et Edwardienne. Histoire, économie et société. 16 (2), 259-278
Gurney, PJ., (1997). The politics of public space in Manchester, 1896-1919. Manchester Region History Review. XI, 12-23
Gurney, PJ., (1995). Jean Turnbull and Jayne Southern, More Than Just a Shop. The History of the Co-op in Lancashire (Lancaster: Lancashire County Books, 1995). Labour History Review. 60 (1), 84-5
Gurney, PJ., (1995). Johnston Birchall, Co-op: The People’s Business (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994). Labour History Review. 60 (1), 84-85
Gurney, PJ., (1994). Heads, hands and the co-operative utopia: an essay in historiography. North West Labour History. 19, 3-23
Gurney, PJ., (1994). The Middle Class Embrace: language, representation and the contest over co-operative forms in Britain, 1860-1914. Victorian Studies. 37 (2), 253-286
Gurney, PJ., (1991). David Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture, England 1750-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). Sociological Review. 39 (1), 197-199
Books (5)
Gurney, P., Grant, M. and Morley, J., (2025). National Service Life Stories: Masculinity, Class, and the Memory of Conscription in Britain. Oxford University Press
Gurney, P., (2020). Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Socialism. Volume II. Socialism and Co-operation in Britain, 1850-1918. Routledge. 9781138321007
Gurney, P., (2017). The Making of Consumer Culture in Modern Britain. Bloomsbury Academic. 9781441137210
Gurney, P., (2015). Wanting and having: Popular politics and liberal consumerism in England, 1830-70. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-9145-2
Gurney, P., (1996). Co-operative Culture and the Politics of Consumption in England, 1870-1930. Manchester University Press. 0719049504. 9780719049507
Book chapters (21)
Gurney, P., (2025). Emporium. In: New Cambridge History of Britain. Vol. IV, 1750-1900. Editors: Kriegel, L., . Cambridge University Press
Gurney, P., (2022). GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE: SOCIALISM, ASSOCIATION, AND CO-OPERATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND. In: Routledge Revivals: History Workshop: 13 Volume Set. 52- 72
Gurney, P., (2020). Socialism and co-operation in Britain, 1850-1918. In: Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Socialism. Routledge. 1- 21. 978-1-138-32100-7
Gurney, P. and Morgan, K., (2020). Introduction: Socialism before the age of party. In: Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Socialism. Routledge. 1- 12. 978-1-138-32100-7
Gurney, PJ., (2015). A house divided: the Labour Party and the organised consumer in post-war Britain. In: Consuming Behaviours: identity, politics and pleasure in twentieth-century Britain. Editors: Rappaport, E., Crowley, M. and Trudgeon Dawson, S., . Bloomsbury Academic. 237- 251. 978-0857857392
Gurney, PJ., (2009). Co-operative Press. In: Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Editors: Brake, L. and Demoor, M., . Academia Press and The British Library. 142- 143
Gurney, PJ., (2009). G.J. Holyoake. In: Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Editors: Brake, L. and Demoor, M., . Academia Press and The British Library. 285- 286
Gurney, PJ., (2009). Entries on 'Co-operative Press' and 'G. J. Holyoake'. In: Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Editors: Brake, L. and Demoor, M., . Academia Press and The British Library. 142- 3, 285-6. 978-9038213408
Gurney, PJ., (2007). '"A Palace for the People"? The Crystal Palace and consumer culture in Victorian England. In: Victorian Prism. Refractions of the Crystal Palace. Editors: Buzard, J. and Childers, J., . University of Virginia Press. 138- 150. 9780813926032
Gurney, PJ., (2007). Thomas Frost (1821-1908). In: New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Editors: Goldman, L., . Oxford University Press
Gurney, PJ., (2006). Cooperative Movement. In: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire. Editors: Merriman, J. and Winter, J., . Charles Scribners Sons. 555- 557
Gurney, PJ., (2006). Percy Redfern (1875-1958). In: New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Editors: Goldman, L., . Oxford University Press
Gurney, PJ., (2003). Co-operative movement. In: The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought. Editors: Outhwaite, W., . Blackwell. 114- 116
Gurney, PJ., (2001). An appropriated space: the Great Exhibition, the Crystal Palace and the working class. In: The Great Exhibition of 1851: New Interdisciplinary Essays. Editors: Purbrick, L., . Manchester University Press. 114- 145. 9780719055928
Gurney, PJ., (2000). Observing working-class sexuality in England in the 1930s. In: Sex, State and Society. Comparative Perspectives on the History of Sexuality. Editors: Tedebrand, L-G., . Almqvist and Wiksell International. 301- 328. 9789171918710
Gurney, PJ., (1999). Labor's great arch: Co-operation and cultural revolution in Britain, 1795-1926. In: Consumers against Capitalism? Consumer Co-operation in Europe, North America and Japan, 1840-1990. Editors: Furlough, E. and Strickwerda, C., . Rowman & Littlefield. 135- 171. 9780847686490
Gurney, PJ., (1997). Measuring the distance: D. H. Lawrence, Raymond Williams and the quest for "community". In: Social Conditions, Status and Community, c.1860-1920. Editors: Laybourn, K., . Alan Sutton. 60- 83. 9780750910705
Gurney, PJ., (1995). L'abbraccio della bourghesia: linguaggi e modi di rappresentare la cooperazione in Gran Bretagna, 1860-1914. In: La Federconsorzi tra Stato liberale e fascismo. Editors: Fontana, S., . Laterza. 231- 268. 978-8842048060
Gurney, PJ., (1993). Co-operative movement. In: The Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth Century Social Thought. Editors: Bottomore, T. and Outhwaite, W., . Blackwell. 111- 113
Gurney, PJ., (1988). "A Higher State of Civilisation and Happiness": Internationalism in the British Co-operative Movement c.1869-1917. In: Internationalism in the European Labour Movement: 1830-1940. Editors: Van der Linden, M. and Van Holthoon, F., . Brill. 543- 564. 9789004085558
Gurney, PJ., (1988). George Jacob Holyoake: Socialism, association and co-operation in nineteenth century England. In: New Views of Co-operation. Editors: Yeo, S., . Routledge. 52- 72. 978-0415025232
Grants and funding
2015
National Service Life Stories: masculinity, class and the memory of conscription in Britain
Leverhulme Trust
