When thinking of England in the 1880s, many people’s minds immediately jump to the prosperous Victorian Era. What people may not think about is the major poor problem that plagued London. An economic collapse in the 1870s led to depression and a significant increase in the unemployment rate. With the rate above ten percent, many working class men in London found themselves without a steady job. Because of their lack of significant income and the population increase in the city, these people were forced to stay in cramped and unsanitary living conditions. On February 8, 1886, the Fair Trade League called a meeting in Trafalgar Square to discuss options to deal with the unemployment situation. After hearing about the meeting, the Social Democratic …show more content…
Prior to this point in time, most people were unaware of how much the poor problem had grown. The findings of the Royal Commission on Housing showed “that the chronically poor ‘residuum’… composed a substantial proportion of working-class London.” (283). The term residuum has been coined to mean the lowest of the poor, who are seen as irredeemable and a burden on society. Jones makes a point to distinguish between the lower working class and the residuum. While some members of the lower class may go through periods of unemployment, they were not beyond hope, like the residuum. Middle class members saw the casual poor as being deserving of their fate, and were vilified in newspapers and in discussions amongst members of society. The middle class thought of the residuum as dangerous because “its very existence served to contaminate the classes immediately above it” (289). Because of the amount of distrust and fear of this group of people, people blamed the residuum for causing the riot. Jones does not disagree with this. While he believes the residuum was behind the riot and caused the damage to property, he also thinks that they are not the only party at fault in the situation. The overreactions of the middle class and the police only escalated the situation, when perhaps more should have been done to help the
The book The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century by Robert Roberts gives an honest account of a village in Manchester in the first 25 years of the 20th century. The title is a reference to a description used by Friedrich Engels to describe the area in his book Conditions of the Working Class. The University of Manchester Press first published Roberts' book in the year 1971. The more recent publication by Penguin Books contains 254 pages, including the appendices. The author gives a firsthand description of the extreme poverty that gripped the area in which he grew up. His unique perspective allows him to accurately describe the self-imposed caste system, the causes and effects of widespread poverty, and the impact of World War I as someone who is truly a member of a proletarian family. His main contention is that prior to the War, the working class inhabiting the industrial slums in England "lay outside the mainstream of that society and possessed within their own ranks a system of social stratification that enclosed them in their own provincial social world and gave them little hope of going beyond it. " After the War, the working class found new economic prosperity and a better way of life, never returning to the lifestyle prevalent prior to the War.
As Rand refutes a principal concept of socialism, she illustrates multiple counts of insubordination and social class structures. Socialism’s attempt to remove class structure fails miserably. The most prominent demonstration of rebellion rises from Equality 7-2521 and his emotions and desire for knowledge. After being denied by the Council of Scholars, Equality 7-2521 rashly breaks a window and flees “in a ringing rain of glass” (Rand 75). Equality 7-2521’s actions illustrate the ‘working class’ rebelling against the ‘elitists’ though this society attempted to eliminate social structures. Furthermore, Equality 7-2521 was not alone in rebelling against ‘the brotherhood’, Liberty 5-3000 followed his example. Unsatisfied with her life and the suppression of emotion, she followed Equality 7-2521’s example and “on the night of the day when we heard it, we ran away from the Home of Peasants” (Rand 82). The rebellion of the two members reflects the means of a social rev...
The connection between poor living conditions, low income families, and inequality of varying groups go hand in hand when dealing with poverty as discussed in Evicted by Matthew Desmond. These issues are often swept under the rug for those not immersed in the situation and can even be unknown. There is gender inequality which can affect every aspect of life, including dwelling. There is also racial inequality which also renders the quality of life. Both themes have a deeper meaning and are connected at the source of poor education and job discrimination.
Wohl, Anthony S. The Eternal Slum: Housing and Social Policy in Victorian London. London: Edward Arnold, 1977.
· The coursework booklet · Sources from the booklet. Internet websites http://www.umd.umich.edu – used for information on the new poor law and information on the workhouses. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Lpoor1834.htm - used for more info on the new poor law.
Twenty years ago, Stack sought to explain why the impoverished area was not subject to conventional judgment and evaluation by describing the primary differences between that society, and the more affluent culture that defines the standards. To say, for example, that the average black household is unstructured would be a misstatement. On the contrary, these households are elaborately structured, but in a more fluid manner than the conventional home. Typically, these subcultures are negatively defined – or judged by what they are not. Through this lens, The Flats appears to be a disheveled mess of rats scurrying for the next scrap of food. Walking into this situation, Stack had to prove the notion that “distinctively negative features attributed to poor families, that they are fat...
These changes were considered very radical considering they took place in Victorian England and helped the poor who by popular opinion should not receive help. With poverty spread right across England and ideas changing rapidly this meant that the view that people were in poverty because they were lazy and therefore worthless, became dated, mainly due to the works of Charles Booth and Seebhom Rowntree. Soon after the turn of the century new works were released on how people became poor, for example, Charles Booth’s ‘Life and Labour of People in London’ and Seebohm Rowntree’s ‘Poverty and a Study of Town Life’ (in York). Their ideas stated that a third of people who were living in Britain were living in poverty. In addition they were in poverty through no fault of their own.
University, T. T. (2011). Deprivation and it's Discontents. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from indianapublicmedia.org: http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/deprivation-discontents/
As stated by the author, the “Principle of less eligibility,” meant that those receiving public assistance “should be worse than that of the lowest paid self-supporting laborer.” In a sense this meant if a person dug ditches or scooped human waste for a living, the situation of a public assistance recipient should be much worse. The author points out that in 1834, when the “Poor Law Reform Bill,” passed it enforced the negative attitudes about poverty. Essentially, if someone was poor it was viewed as their fault. Services should never lift a recipient out of poverty, but just provide meager assistance in a stigmatizing way. The author describes how impoverished individuals in England during the mid-1800’s, were viewed in negative, criminal ways if they received assistance. Furthermore, those described as “able bodied and on assistance were particularly maligned in the court of public opinion. Many of the homeless and
Dispossessed” aims to raise awareness to his audience that people of the working class still exist
“After the passing of the Great Reform Bill, the liberal Whig leadership struck a snag. Several years of depression put the conservative Tories back in power in 1841. Wages and living conditions grew steadily worse as the industrial revolution permitted the rise of great fortunes for owners and employers along with starvation and poverty for great numbers of the working classes.” (Earl Davis, The Flint and the Flame, Page 115)
...stic things in order to live a better, more sound, and overall healthier life. Juxtaposition makes the audience want to follow through with the purpose. Exemplification causes the audience to realize the extent of their materialistic nature. A definition of the average homeless person’s terms allows him to build his ethos and consequently allow the audience to believe and follow his purpose. A majority of people are a part of the middle class, and this majority tends to judge the poor for their lifestyle whether it be through Dumpster diving or begging on the streets. However, as proven by the essay, these people have no right to do so because the poor do, in reality, have a greater sense of self than these middle-class people, similar to the rich. The middle-class citizens must no longer act the victim; instead, they should be working on becoming more sentimental.
There was a growing sense that the poor did not deserve assistance and so in 1834 the ‘Poor Law Amendment Act’ was introduced. This was designed to make conditions more severe and to even further force self-improvement amongst the poor. ‘The central objective…was to withdraw poor relief from men judged ‘able-bodied’ in Poor Law terminology’. (Thane: 1978: 29) Alternatives such as the work-house were introduced. The notion that you should only ask for help if you desperately needed it as a last resource loomed. The Charity Organisation Society was ‘a body w...
He shows us that every privilege, and attitude that the middle class have, is a direct result, of the exploitation of the working class; and their deplorable
The farmers moved away from there farmlands to the city for better job opportunities, the gamble for money decreased due to the newly acquired jobs many men had received, where they knew at least they would receive some money. Though this wasn’t the case for everyone in England, the benefitted ones had the upper hand as travel was cheaper and became a luxury. (2) The rich, striking people became civilized people and joined as a community, do to the boom of money and working jobs. Of course there are still many farmers who didn’t move and are not making as much money, but for the other people the money is rolling in and they can afford things like houses and food for all three meals.