‘The Art and Ideology of the Trade Union Emblem, 1850–1925’ is a groundbreaking book that considers trade union emblems and banners as art objects in their own right. It studies their commissioning, their designers and the social conditions and gender relations that they knowingly or unwittingly reveal. The volume celebrates working-class culture and shows how it could be both innovative and derivative. Annie Ravenhill-Johnson’s exploration of the artistry of the emblems – the art of and for the toiling masses – sets these images of labour in their historical, cultural and ideological context.  ‘Combining art history and classics, “Art and Ideology” is an important new source for museum curators researching the trade union and fraternal regalia found in many collections, as well as being a model case study for scholars of many disciplines in using material culture as academic evidence.’ —Dr Nicholas Mansfield, Senior Research Fellow in History at the School of Education and Social Science, University of Central Lancashire Dr Annie Ravenhill-Johnson, born 1942, is from Jersey in the Channel Islands. She gained her BA (Hons) from the University of Warwick, and holds a postgraduate diploma with distinction and an MA with distinction in the history of art and design from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (University of Central England in Birmingham), where she also studied for her DPhil. Paula James was born in Southampton in 1950. She holds a PhD in Latin from the University of Southampton, and is a senior lecturer with the Classical Studies Department at the Open University, having held the post since 1993. She is also a staff tutor in the Arts Faculty of the Open University’s South East Region.