The Working Class at Home, 1790-1940

Book Overview

This book examines life in the homes inhabited by the working class over the long nineteenth century. These working-class homes are often imagined as distinctly unhomely spaces, which the inhabitants struggled to fill with even the most basic of furniture, let alone acquire the comforts associated with middle-class domestic space. The concerned reformers of industrialising towns and cities painted a picture of severe deprivation, of rooms that were both cramped yet bare at the same time, and disease-ridden spaces from which their subjects required rescue. It is an image which is not only inadequate, but which also robs working-class people of their agency in creating domestic spaces which allowed for the expression of personal and familial feeling. Bringing together emerging scholars who challenge these ideas and using a range of innovative sources and approaches, this edited collection presents a new understanding of working-class homes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3030892751
• ISBN13: 9783030892753
• Release Date: February 2023
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.3"