Sidney Pollard was a pioneering labour historian who influenced the gret luminaries in the field, E.P. Thompson and E.J. Hobsbawm, and whose contribution to the study of the marginalized in society was original and vital. David Renton tells his story.

Sidney Pollard was a pioneering labour historian who influenced the gret luminaries in the field, E.P. Thompson and E.J. Hobsbawm. Almost single-handedly, he pioneered the study of eceonomic management in history and the understanding of the economic processes by which regions are formed. As a labour historian, his contribution to the study of the marginalized in society was original and vital. His history was intimately connected with his personal life - from escape to Britain from Nazi-occupied Vienna on the Jewish kindertransporte, to work in Britain, the USA, Israel and apartheid South Africa.