Love and toil : motherhood in outcast London, 1870-1918 / Ellen Ross.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ross, Ellen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motherhood--England--London--History.

Motherhood.

Poor--England--London--History.

Poor.

Working class--England--London--History.

Working class.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 308 pages) : illustrations, map

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, New York ; Oxford, [England] : Oxford University Press, 1993.

Summary:

The history of the British working classes has until recently been written with a focus on the workplace or on such male organizations as clubs, unions, or national political parties. This study of mothers in London before the First World War stresses the distinctiveness of their experiences from those of other classes, and of the post World War I period, and demonstrates the ways in which mothers and their domestic choices were essential to the survival and cultural perpetuation of the working classes.

Contents:

Intro

CONTENTS

A NOTE ON ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CURRENCY AND USAGE

ABBREVIATIONS

TABLES

INTRODUCTION "The Other History": Motherhood

1. "Miss, I Wish I Had Your Life": The Poor of London and Their Chroniclers

London and Its Poor

The Lady and the Slum

Seeing and Hearing the Poor

The Discovery of the Mother

2. "There Is Meat Ye Know Not Of": Feeding a Family

The Cultural Meanings of Food

Human Occasions

Of Men and Meals

The Oatmeal Wars

The Sunday Dinner

Money, Food, and the Market

Shopping in the World Market

Food and Rent in Household Budgets

The Battle over Alcohol

Wages and Food

Cooking on Ten Shillings a Week

Market Relations

Bound to Fail

3. "A Gamble You Have to Take": Marriage

Marriage in London

Choosing a Husband

The Duties of Wives

The Provider Role

The Wife's "Wage

Gender Divisions and Jurisdictions

Pawning and Power

Violence

Pleasure

4. "What Is Fated Must Be": Having Babies

Honeymoon All Over

Not a Careful Man": Sex, Contraception, and Abortion

Often Weak and Low Spirited": Pregnancy

Childbirth as "Rupture": Maternity Rituals

Childbirth Attendants

Falling over Precipices": Childbed Fears

Worn Out

5. "I'll Bring 'Em Up in My Way": Child Rearing

Being a Mother

Mothers and Their Babies

Rituals of the Postpartum Weeks

Foundlings, Informal Adoptions, and Community Child Care

Working for" Baby

Feeding the Baby

Dowager Babies

Children Helping and Working

Daughters and Sons "Helping Mother

Collective Care of Children

Wage-earning Children

School Stories

6. "She Fought for Me like a Tigress": Sickness and Health

Medicine and Mothers

Allopathic Medicine Before the Twentieth Century

Ladies in Uniform

Medical Terrors

Folk Medicine in London.

Caring for Sick and Dying Children

Sick Children

Matters of Life and Death

A Tentative Attachment

A Child's Death

7. "The Value of Babies": Transforming Motherhood, 1900-1918

Unpaid Nursemaid of the State

The State and Fertility

The "Deterioration" Hearings

Guilt and Responsibility

Ignorant Old Women" or "Medical Supervision

In Came the Lady with the Alligator Purse": Health Visiting

Medical "Defects" and the School Care Committees

Mothers' and Babies' Clinics

Medical Motherhood

CONCLUSION: Rediscovering Motherhood

NOTES

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Z.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-028134-0

0-585-33412-9

OCLC:

935229222