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Loading... The Unknown Mayhew (1971)by Henry Mayhew (Writer), E. P. Thompson (Editor), Eileen Yeo (Editor)
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Henry Mayhew (1812-1887) was a notable Victorian journalist. He left for posterity a highly readable and memorable three-volume book, London Labour and the London Poor (1851): three volumes based on 82 letters written for the Morning Chronicle in 1849 and 1850. Packed with anecdote, it is unusual in the rich literature of poverty in London. This volume offers a selection from these letters, each of which averaged 10,500 words - a total of nearly one million words. Do you read the Morning Chronicle? Douglas Jerrold asked Mrs Cowden Clarke in February 1850. Do you devour those marvellous revelations of the inferno of misery, of wretchedness, that is smouldering under our feet? ...To read of the suffering of one class, and the avarice, the tyranny, the pocket cannibalism of the other, makes one almost wonder that the world should go on... No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)301.44Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Sociology and anthropology Formerly: Social structureLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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This book is a collection of Henry Mayhew's letters to the Morning Chronicle, concentrating on those that he didn't later use in London Labour and the London Poor. I had been looking forward to reading it, but the introductory essays were almost enough to put me off, being repetitive and frankly, quite dull.
The first, 'Mayhew and the 'Morning Chronicle', describes Mayhew as being indolent, often in debt and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and not well liked by his colleagues in journalism and publishing. The second, 'Mayhew as a Social Investigator', is repetitive and rather boring, and I was left wondering what slop-work and the sweating trades might be, as the author of the essay didn't bother to define them. However Mayhew comes out of this essay rather better, as although his political opponents keep on denigrating his working methods and findings, he is able to defend himself successfully with the support of the people working on 'London Labour and the London Poor' with him.
But when it comes to the actual letters I found them a much more interesting read, as Mayhew didn't paraphrase what the workers told him, so their authentic voices shine through. In the case of most of the trades covered in these letters, wages have gone down so much over the previous twenty or thirty years, that workmen are earning much less even though they are working much longer hours and even working on Sundays which they used to have off and in many cases their wives and children have to work with them, instead of keeping house and attending school as they used to. Told in their own words, their poverty and desperation comes across strongly, and Mayhew's analysis shows that the increase in poverty should be blamed on increased competition rather than increased population which was the received wisdom at that time. ( )