Lewis Mates
Lewis' PhD, on the politics of the left in north-east England, was supervised by Professor Martin Pugh at Newcastle University. While completing the thesis, he worked with Professor Douglas Davies (Theology, Durham University) on the Encyclopedia of Cremation. There followed two funded projects (AHRC and ESRC) on political activism in post-war Britain with Dr. Gidon Cohen (SGIA). Between 2008 and 2017 Lewis lived the neo-liberal dream, delivering zero-hour teaching in the disciplines of Politics and History to undergraduates and MA students in Northumbria and Durham universities, before securing a two-year teaching fellowship in SGIA. In autumn 2019 he started on a permanent teaching-track position with SGIA.
Lewis' varied research interests are both empirical (qualitative and mixed methods) and theoretical. He has published single-authored monographs and numerous journal articles and book chapters on the politics of the Spanish republican solidarity campaigns (1936-39) and of the Durham miners' union.
Currently he is writing up the findings of a project into teaching local mining history in primary schools and trying to find the time to write a monograph on anarchist ideology, using the life of one-time anarchist Durham miner turned 'right wing' national trade union leader Will Lawther as a lens. He plans to research anarchism and pedagogy once these projects are completed.
Teaching involves modules on the history of political thought, political theory (particularly democratic theory and ideology) and British politics seen in a long-term perspective through the themes of 'class' and nation'.
Lewis would welcome enquiries from students or prospective students interested in doctoral research on any topics related broadly to his research interests and he is comfortable with both discipline-specific and more interdisciplinary approaches.
Research Interests
* History of Political Thought
* Ideologies and political theory
* Mining History
* Pedagogy: theory and practice
* Modern British political, social and industrial history
* Political Activism
Supervisors: Prof. Martin Pugh
Lewis' varied research interests are both empirical (qualitative and mixed methods) and theoretical. He has published single-authored monographs and numerous journal articles and book chapters on the politics of the Spanish republican solidarity campaigns (1936-39) and of the Durham miners' union.
Currently he is writing up the findings of a project into teaching local mining history in primary schools and trying to find the time to write a monograph on anarchist ideology, using the life of one-time anarchist Durham miner turned 'right wing' national trade union leader Will Lawther as a lens. He plans to research anarchism and pedagogy once these projects are completed.
Teaching involves modules on the history of political thought, political theory (particularly democratic theory and ideology) and British politics seen in a long-term perspective through the themes of 'class' and nation'.
Lewis would welcome enquiries from students or prospective students interested in doctoral research on any topics related broadly to his research interests and he is comfortable with both discipline-specific and more interdisciplinary approaches.
Research Interests
* History of Political Thought
* Ideologies and political theory
* Mining History
* Pedagogy: theory and practice
* Modern British political, social and industrial history
* Political Activism
Supervisors: Prof. Martin Pugh
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Books by Lewis Mates
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Book chapters by Lewis Mates
The following reviews are given below, in this order.
• Reviews of J.A. Piqueras, V.S. Rozalén, A Social History of Spanish Labour: New Perspectives on Class, Politics and Gender (Oxford: Berghahn, 2007) and Ángel Smith, Anarchism, Revolution and Reaction: Catalan Labour and the Crisis of the Spanish State, 1898-1923 (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2007) in Socialist History, 37 (2010) pp.105–110.
• Review of Hugo García, Mentiras Necesarias: la Batalla por la Opinión Británica durante la Guerra Civil (Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva, 2008) in Twentieth Century British History, 21 (2) (2010), pp.253–255.
• Review of David Deacon, British News Media and the Spanish Civil War: Tomorrow may be too late (Edinburgh University Press, 2008) in Contemporary British History, 23 (4) (2009), pp.599–601.
• Review of Tom Buchanan, The Impact of the Spanish Civil War on Britain: War, Loss and Memory (Sussex Academic Press, Eastbourne, 2007) in Twentieth Century British History, 19 (2) 2008, pp.253–254.
• Review of José Peirats, The CNT in the Spanish Revolution, Vol.2, (Christie Books, Sussex, 2005), Anarchist Studies, 14 (2), 2006, pp.179–182.
• Review of Andy Croft, Comrade Heart. A Life of Randall Swingler (Manchester University Press, 2003), North-East History, 37 (2005), pp.160–163.
The following four chapters deal solely with aspects of the popular front. Chapter five discusses the 1938 United Peace Alliance campaign and examines the fresh potential that the aftermath of the Munich settlement offered. The 1939 Cripps Petition campaign is examined in chapter six. Both campaigns failed to mobilise significant labour movement support in the region. Chapter seven considers the attitudes of Conservatives and Liberals to the popular front. Liberal support was almost non-existent. Liberal attitudes were generally characterised by opposition to both socialism and communism, therefore their natural allies were the Conservatives, who largely supported Chamberlain and thus opposed the popular front. Chapter eight, on the Tyneside foodship, assesses the argument that the ‘Aid Spain’ campaigns constituted the closest thing to a popular front in Britain. Generally speaking, these campaigns cannot be seen as de facto popular fronts as they were humanitarian and not political. The thesis concludes that the united front was not very united, nor was the popular front very popular in the region, reflecting their failures at national level.