| Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society Contributor(s): Jones, Gareth Stedman (Author) |
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ISBN: 1781680124 ISBN-13: 9781781680124 Publisher: Verso OUR PRICE: $26.96 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - Great Britain - General - Social Science | Social Classes & Economic Disparity - Business & Economics | Economic History |
| Dewey: 305.569 |
| Physical Information: 1.7" H x 5" W x 7.7" (1.15 lbs) 480 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: At the time the largest city in the world, Victorian London intrigued and appalled politicians, clergymen, novelists and social investigators. Dickens, Mayhew, Booth, Gissing and George Bernard Shaw, to name but a few, developed a morbid fascination with its sullied streets and the sensational gulf between London classes. Outcast London explores the London economy, in particular its vast numbers of casual and irregular day labourers and the artisans and seamstresses engaged in seasonal and workshop trades. This vast assemblage was volatile, subject to the ups and downs of the world economy, to the vagaries of the weather, and to the rise and fall of various trades. Its crises could cause panic in wealthy London. New forms of charity came into being as well as, eventually, an embryonic form of the twentieth century welfare state. At first sight, the London described in this book is wholly remote from the city encountered today. But developments in recent decades reveal that the types of irregular employment, poverty and inequality experienced by modern Londoners are not so distant from those familiar to their Victorian and Edwardian ancestors. |