Neighbours, Distrust, and the State: What the Poorer Working Class in Britain Felt about Government and Each Other, 1860s to 1930s

Neighbours, distrust, and the state challenged traditional beliefs about the poorer working class, revealing diversity of opinion and tensions. Many wanted the authorities to have a bigger role in dealing with neighborhood problems and providing better services. This study is relevant to current political developments and challenges the idea of lost solidarity.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 05 May 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Neighbours, distrust, and the state upend many of our notions about how the poorer working class coexisted and regarded one another from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. The reality was quite different from what has been the generally accepted historical belief; that of an unbreakable solidarity between neighbors against outsiders, particularly in rejecting any interference by government in their lives and communities. But the views of women and others who were less powerful in these neighborhoods have often been ignored. This study reveals the diversity of opinion, tensions, and fears that existed. In fact, many of the poor wanted the authorities to have a bigger role, particularly to deal with neighborhood problems and the personal failings and untrustworthiness of those they saw around them. Many people also simply wanted better provision of services by the state. As well as being a direct challenge to much that has been written about this issue, this study is also timely due to its contemporary political relevance. Many of the points it makes are important to challenge the idea that comprehending a lost solidarity of working-class neighborhoods is the only way to understand current political developments in those areas. It looks at issues such as: relationships with the police; friendly societies; housing; compulsory education; and the extent to which Labour politicians did or did not represent the views of the poor.

Weight: 416g
Dimension: 146 x 224 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198859475