The poor in England 1700-1850 : an economy of makeshifts / edited by Steven King and Alannah Tomkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tomkins, Alannah

Contributor:

King, Steven, 1966- editor, contributor.

Tomkins, Alannah, editor, contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poor--England--History--18th century.

Poor.

Poor--England--History--19th century.

Charity--History.

Charity.

Income--England--History.

Income.

Public welfare--England--History.

Public welfare.

Social networks--England--History.

Social networks.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (285 pages) : figures, maps (black and white); digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Manchester, England : Manchester University Press, 2018.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

data file PDF

Summary:

This fascinating study investigates the experience of English poverty between 1700 and 1900 and in the ways in which the poor made ends meet. The phrase 'economy of makeshifts' has often been used to summarise the patchy, desperate and sometimes failing strategies of the poor for material survival. Incomes or benefits derived from such strategies allegedly ranged from wages supported by under-employment via petty crime through to charity, but allusions to this array of makeshifts usually fall short of answering vital questions about how and when the poor secured access to them. This book represents the single most significant attempt in print to supply the English 'economy of makeshifts' with a solid, empirical basis and to advance the concept of makeshifts from a vague but convenient label to a more precise yet inclusive definition. Individual chapters written by some of the leading, young historians of welfare examine how advantages gained from access to common land, mobilisation of kinship support, resorting to crime, and other marginal resources could prop up struggling households. They suggest how the balance of these strategies might change over time or be modified by gender, life-cycle and geography. A comprehensive introduction summarises the state of research on English poverty, and a thought-provoking conclusion makes valuable suggestions for the direction of future research. This book will be crucial for historians of social life and welfare, of interest to researchers working on eighteenth- /nineteenth- century England and will be useful to undergraduates seeking guidance on the historiography of poverty.

Contents:

Front matter

Dedication

Contents

List of tables

List of figures

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

2 'Not by bread only'?

3 The economy of makeshifts and the poor law

4 'Agents in their own concerns'?

5 Crime, criminal networks and the survival strategies of the poor in early eighteenth-century London

6 Pawnbroking and the survival strategies of the urban poor in 1770s York

7 Kinship, poor relief and the welfare process in early modern England

8 Making the most of opportunity

9 Conclusion

Index

Notes:

First published: 2003.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Mrz 2024)

OCLC:

1125716281