Writing the Lives of the English Poor, 1750s-1830s

Stephan king

"Tracing the experiences of poor people through their own words, Writing the Lives of the English Poor offers a history of the Old Poor Law from below. Steven King shifts attention from traditional approaches to welfare history, broadly 'who got what, when,' and reconstructs the process by which the poor claimed, extended or defended their parochial allowances. Colorful stories and histories of ordinary writers, their advocates and the officials with whom they engaged are distilled from the largest collection of parochial correspondence ever assembled and stand at the heart of this rethinking of English welfare history. A telling of these stories suggests that advocates, officials and the poor shared a common linguistic register and understanding of how far welfare decisions could be contested and negotiated. All participants in the tri-partite epistolary world of the parish colluded...