Useful Toil: Autobiographies of Working People from the 1820s to the 1920s

by John Burnett and John Burnett (ed)

Book Overview

"Useful Toil" engages freshly and directly with the "ordinary" people of the 19th century. John Burnett has assembled 27 telling extracts from the diaries and autobiographies of working people--wheelwrights and stone-masons, miners and munition workers, butlers and kitchen maids, navvies, carpenters, potters and ship assistants to list only a few. The men and women who speak in these pages concentrate on their working experiences, though they also...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140073469
• ISBN13: 9780140073461
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Must Read Material!

This is an unparalleled look inside the real life of working class Britons from ranging from just before the start of the Victorian era to just post WWI. While many of the pieces are excerpts from larger works, they still are both highly engaging and very enlightening, both as social history and as an insider view of labor and labor movements. The editor gives just enough info to put the pieces in context, but otherwise lets the writers' works stand on their own. As a primary source, or just enjoyable autobiographical reading, this is super. I strongly recommend if anything about working class history appeals to you.