Building Co-operation traces the development of The Co-operative Group and its predecessor, the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), over the course of 150 years.
Born from the efforts of the Rochdale Pioneers and others who established successful consumer co-operatives across Britain in the mid-nineteenth century, by the 1860s the proponents of the CWS were ready to pioneer a new effort: a federation, democratically run and collectively owned, that would enable co-operatives to become their own suppliers. From humble origins, the CWS grew into one of Britain's largest businesses within...