London Labour and the London Poor: Selections

Produced between 1850 and 1862, London Labour and the London Poor is one of the most significant examples of nineteenth century oral history. The collection teems with the minute particulars of the everydaybits and pieces of London lives assembled into a precarious whole by the author, editor, and principal investigator, Henry Mayhew. Mayhew was interested in the social fabric of peoples lives, their labour and earnings, but also their families, education, leisure time, and religious beliefs. What gives his case studies such immediacy is that they seem to flow unprompted and uninterrupted from the mouths of his subjects: street sellers, dock labourers, musicians, rat catchers, vagrants, chimney sweeps, thieves, and prostitutes.

All are captured in this newly annotated and abridged edition of Mayhews four-volume work. Historical appendices include a contemporary map of London, reviews of London Labour, and other slum journalism from the period.

Key features

• The only edition with appendices

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