The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker : the story of Britain through its census, since 1801 / Roger Hutchinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hutchinson, Roger, 1949- author.

Contributor:

Lachs-Adler Family Endowed Fund for Collection Development.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization.

Great Britain--Census--History.

Great Britain.

History.

Great Britain--Civilization--19th century.

Great Britain--Civilization--20th century.

Great Britain--Civilization--21st century.

Census.

Genre:

Census data.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 340 pages ; 25 cm

Other Title:

Story of Britain through its census, since 1801

Place of Publication:

London : Little, Brown, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, 2017.

Summary:

"At the beginning of each decade for 200 years the national census has presented a self-portrait of the British Isles. The census has surveyed Britain from the Napoleonic wars to the age of the internet, through the agricultural and industrial revolutions, possession of the biggest empire on earth and the devastation of the 20th century's two world wars. In The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker, Roger Hutchinson looks at every census between the first in 1801 and the latest in 2011. He uses this much-loved resource of family historians to paint a vivid picture of a society experiencing unprecedented changes. Hutchinson explores the controversial creation of the British census. He follows its development from a head-count of the population conducted by clerks with quill pens, to a computerised survey which is designed to discover 'the address, place of birth, religion, marital status, ability to speak English and self-perceived national identity of every twenty-seven-year-old Welsh-speaking Sikh metalworker living in Swansea'. All human life is here, from prime ministers to peasants and paupers, from Irish rebels to English patriots, from the last native speakers of Cornish to the first professional footballers, from communities of prostitutes to individuals called 'abecedarians' who made a living from teaching the alphabet. The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker is as original and unique as those people and their islands on the cutting edge of Europe"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

A perfect man

Censuses, taxation and war

A hazy snapshot from the air

The first modern census

Seamstresses, prostitutes, billiard-markers and footballers

Lathes and rapes

Two parrots, one canary and innumerable mice

The British babel

A nation of emigrants

Aliens

Empire

Great War

The fractured kingdom

Depression

Welcome home.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-328) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Lachs-Adler Family Endowed Fund for Collection Development.

ISBN:

1408707012

9781408707012

OCLC:

972392964