This study teaches life history techniques as a way of understanding empirical research. The text brings together a collection of papers which examine the life, work and unemployment histories of both men and women. Particular areas focused on include analyses of reminiscence in the elderly, severe head injury recovery, absenteeism, redundancy and social mobility, as well as a study of two recent new British work history data sets. The contributors aim to evaluate critically the past two decades of developments in data collection as well as contributing to the topics under discussion in an analytical fashion.