W.W.J. Knox and A. McKinlay,Jimmy Reid: A Clyde Built Man,

Jimmy Reid is a totemic figure of twentieth century labour history. His political life is of interest to scholars of Scottish labour history and beyond, perhaps most obviously through his leadership of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders’ (UCS) successful 1971 work-in. Knox and McKinlay’s new biography provides a valuable resource for revisiting the life of a celebrated, charismatic and sometimes controversial Scottish political figure. Their account is empirically rigorous and provides a praiseworthy breadth in detailing an individual’s life.

Usefully, the biography begins with methodological reflection, identifying a series of valuable resources and archives for related scholars and reflecting on the nature of revisiting political lives. This illuminates the collective endeavours of preserving and documenting archives of the political left, noting the role of key archives in making this biography (p. 8). This reflective approach is refreshing and insightful, revealing a nuanced portrayal of biography and acknowledging, for example, the challenges of oral history (pp. 4–5). As such, the account that follows rarely claims simple causality or explanation in describing the key events of Reid’s life (e.g. resignation from the Communist Party, p. 172), instead often providing a range of contributing factors and potential triggers.

The remaining historiography largely follows a chronological revisiting of Reid’s life. The authors trace his upbringing and family influences before engaging with his first forays into political life, through the Young Communist League and apprentices’ strikes. Considerable time and attention is rightly given to the UCS work-in, followed by a detailed exploration of Reid’s post work-in life. A review of this sort is not the place to detail each chapter in great detail, but only to add that the authors attend to the continuities and departures within the longer life of an individual, whilst also suitably detailing the specificity of key moments.

The authors’ approach is developed with regular soft-touch reflection in terms of explanatory notes and commentary, allowing the reader to piece together Reid’s life and consider his political trajectory, without imposing interpretation. Indeed, their emphasis on the political and economic realm is complemented with considerable access to his wider personal life, often through oral histories with family and associates, to consider Reid’s life within and beyond institutions. This combination was clearly crucial in shaping ‘a Clyde-built man’. Their identification of Reid’s early ‘social life that involved dancing as much as dialectics’ (p. 60) begins to capture the character of Reid and the wider biographical sentiment in combining social and political realms.

Political biographies often centre on notable events, those moments in an individual’s life whereby they take seemingly life-defining action. Yet an over emphasis on the immediacy of the events, and equally the significance of particular individuals, potentially downplays the longer trajectory and wider community of influence on the shaping of events. The strength of Knox and McKinlay’s biographical work is that it dovetails particularity and plurality with suitable nuance. They rightly stress the strength of character of Reid and his distinctive leadership qualities, noting his oratory prowess whereby he ‘had a way of talking that personalised his speeches as if addressed to the individual rather than the assembled mass audience’ (p. 112) but are also keen to regularly emphasise the wider influences within his life. This approach acknowledges his moulding as an ‘organic intellectual’ within places and collectives such as the home, workplace, Govan libraries and as a Communist cadre (p. 67). These formative years provided a schooling that informed Reid during major disputes and enabled him to ‘think through the role of the state and shipyard management as strategic issues’ (p. 118).

Documenting these experiences foregrounds the importance of mentors and comradery that shaped Reid’s political views, whilst also acknowledging the unique nature of his own ‘capacity to connect with the shipyard workforce’ (p. 118). Thus, what emerges from this research is a relational account, revealing solidarities and friendships, influences and ruptures that were so prominent within Reid’s life. This seems entirely appropriate, as such moments and events are rarely defined discretely or informed by a singular influence. For example, Reid’s position on self-determination in Scotland, and eventual support for the Scottish National Party, is reflected on in several key moments of the book, indicating a fluid and flexible political positioning (p. 233).

In my view, the book’s main strength is the ability to balance the contributions of Reid with those partnerships, solidarities and wider influences that shaped the activisms noted in the book. E.P. Thompson once claimed in reference to Tom Maguire that ‘[a]n individual does not create a movement of thousands: this must be the product of a community’. ¹ This sentiment is similarly captured in this biography. Thus, whilst Reid is the central actor in a book defined by its biographical focus, what becomes clear throughout is his role within wider communities. These linkages include solidarities (e.g., during the work-in, pp. 115–19), friendships (e.g. with James Airlie, p. 111) and mentors (e.g. the influence of John Sheriff, 44), but also indicate the significant moments of rupture and disconnection (e.g. joining and leaving the Labour Party, pp. 176, 227). Perhaps there was space here for wider, more detailed and critical engagement with the content of Reid’s own writing and high profile journalism, yet the authors have produced a valuable biographical insight into an inspirational life, in an engaging and reflexive manner. The life of Reid has many insights and stories to be shared, as the authors’ indicate, noting how ‘Reid never stopped battling against poverty and inequality’ and that ‘he was in individual, an outsider, a man of restless intellect’ (p. 242).