Death, grief and poverty in Britain, 1870-1914 / Julie-Marie Strange.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strange, Julie-Marie, 1973- author.

Series:

Cambridge social and cultural histories ; 6.

Cambridge social and cultural histories ; 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Death--Social aspects--Great Britain--History.

Death.

Bereavement--Social aspects--Great Britain--History.

Bereavement.

Poverty--Social aspects--Great Britain--History.

Poverty.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 294 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Death, Grief & Poverty in Britain, 1870-1914

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

With high mortality rates, it has been assumed that the poor in Victorian and Edwardian Britain did not mourn their dead. Contesting this approach, Julie-Marie Strange studies the expression of grief among the working class, demonstrating that poverty increased - rather than deadened - it. She illustrates the mourning practices of the working classes through chapters addressing care of the corpse, the funeral, the cemetery, commemoration, and high infant mortality rates. The 2005 book draws on a broad range of sources to analyse the feelings and behaviours of the labouring poor, using not only personal testimony but also fiction, journalism, and official reports. It concludes that poor people did not only use spoken or written words to express their grief, but also complex symbols, actions and, significantly, silence. This book will be an invaluable contribution to an important and neglected area of social and cultural history.

Contents:

Revisiting the Victorian and Edwardian celebration of death

Life, sickness and death

Caring for the corpse

The funeral

Only a pauper whom nobody owns: reassessing the pauper burial

Remembering the dead: the cemetery as a landscape for grief

Loss, memory and the management of feeling

Grieving for dead children

Death, grief and the Great War.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-15071-X

1-280-20292-0

0-511-12565-8

0-511-19963-5

0-511-12615-8

0-511-30021-2

0-511-49608-7

0-511-12529-1

OCLC:

171137336