For many years, farm workers fought to rescue themselves from bleak, soul-destroying poverty. Their victories and their bitterest defeats, from the cruel treatment of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to the false dawn of the Second World War are recounted in Sharpen the Sickle. 'It is the history of the awakening of the exploited rural poor. It shows us the times, the way workers and their families lived. Every page brings alive, the privation and bitterness that made farm workers among the first to organize themselves into a Union and to take on their exploiters. And it does not hesitate to criticize the men who led them and the decisions taken.' Jack Boddy, General Secretary of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers. Reg Groves (1908-1988) was a lifelong socialist from a rural background. He was the author of several books, including A History of the Chartist Movement, The Peasants Revolt 1381, Conrad Noel and the Thaxted Movement and Seed Time and Harvest.