The Working Class At Home, 1790-1940

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.

• | Author: Joseph Harley, Vicky Holmes, Laika Nevalainen
• | Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• | Publication Date: Feb 19, 2023
• | Number of Pages: 279 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 3030892751
• | ISBN-13: 9783030892753