- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: The National Archives; illustrated edition edition (30 April 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1905615280
- ISBN-13: 978-1905615285
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
387,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18 in Books > History > World History > 1901-1913
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
I cannot praise this book enough --School Librarian
This poignant account... draws powerfully on letters from The National Archives...(It) brings out the horror, but is fair-minded to those struggling to be humane within an inhumane system. --The Independent
This poignant account... draws powerfully on letters from The National Archives...(It) brings out the horror, but is fair-minded to those struggling to be humane within an inhumane system. --The Independent
Mark Crail for Ancestors magazine
This is an ideal read for any family historian wanting a proper,
rounded understanding of the workhouse system.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
rounded understanding of the workhouse system.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
THE word 'workhouse' has resonance: unfeeling, mean and bleak, casting a terrifying shadow over ordinary lives. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE word 'workhouse' has resonance: unfeeling, mean and bleak, casting a terrifying shadow over ordinary lives. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book explores, in an easy and amusing style, how and why the workhouse came to be a byword for last place you would wish to find yourself in the nineteenth century (and well into the twentieth). On the other hand it also shows how sometimes the workhouse was able to do some good. I hadn't known, for instance, that before universal education workhouse children often got a better one than the children of the "respectable poor" outside it, nor that workhouse hospitals eventually started to provide what was sometimes the best medical attention in some areas. The food however, always an interest of mine, seems to have been quite as dreadful as you might imagine!
This is an impressively well-researched book. It gives a very good picture of how and why the workhouse came into being, what it was like inside it for those running it and for the inmates and the gradual changes that took place.
There are some typos but these don't detract from the author's convincing arguments. I would have liked too to be able to tie some of what is said to a particular source (of which there are many) but there are no footnotes. The book is clearly aimed at the general reader though, and not the academic one, so perhaps the editors were to blame for the decision not to have any.
Thoroughly recommended.
This is an impressively well-researched book. It gives a very good picture of how and why the workhouse came into being, what it was like inside it for those running it and for the inmates and the gradual changes that took place.
There are some typos but these don't detract from the author's convincing arguments. I would have liked too to be able to tie some of what is said to a particular source (of which there are many) but there are no footnotes. The book is clearly aimed at the general reader though, and not the academic one, so perhaps the editors were to blame for the decision not to have any.
Thoroughly recommended.
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This excellent book will fascinate a wide range of readers and should help local, social and family history researchers.
Simon Fowler looks at the whole experience of the pauper in the workhouse and clearly explains the reasons why they were so treated.
The author's style is excellent, his narrative is easy to read and is quite often amusing with some very useful and humorous anecdotes that make it different from other titles on the subject.
Although the workhouse often had a bad name, which was not helped by a number of scandals in the 1830s and 1840s as well as novels such as Oliver Twist. Some good often came out of it and, as the author points out, many children did in fact receive a better lifestyle and education in these institutions, than they would have done had they remained with their parents or extended family in the hovels of the poorer areas of the country.
There is no doubt that this book has been well researched. It provides the reader with a good insight into how these establishments came about and also how they were managed and run too. The best chapters relate to children and the sick and elderly which really gives an idea of how they were treated and the fact that in most places conditions improved during the 19th century.
I read a previous review and can agree this is a not a volume aimed at academics, yes there are one or two spelling mistakes here and there, but for the general reader it is fascinating -so much so a history lecturer friend of mine has already borrowed it and one or two others have asked where they can get it from!
Get more stocks in Amazon - this will be a success.
Simon Fowler looks at the whole experience of the pauper in the workhouse and clearly explains the reasons why they were so treated.
The author's style is excellent, his narrative is easy to read and is quite often amusing with some very useful and humorous anecdotes that make it different from other titles on the subject.
Although the workhouse often had a bad name, which was not helped by a number of scandals in the 1830s and 1840s as well as novels such as Oliver Twist. Some good often came out of it and, as the author points out, many children did in fact receive a better lifestyle and education in these institutions, than they would have done had they remained with their parents or extended family in the hovels of the poorer areas of the country.
There is no doubt that this book has been well researched. It provides the reader with a good insight into how these establishments came about and also how they were managed and run too. The best chapters relate to children and the sick and elderly which really gives an idea of how they were treated and the fact that in most places conditions improved during the 19th century.
I read a previous review and can agree this is a not a volume aimed at academics, yes there are one or two spelling mistakes here and there, but for the general reader it is fascinating -so much so a history lecturer friend of mine has already borrowed it and one or two others have asked where they can get it from!
Get more stocks in Amazon - this will be a success.
Format:Paperback
I read this simply because a passing reference to workhouses in a TV documentary pricked an interest which I was keen to follow. The book does not disappoint - its descriptions of conditions in many workhouses are more powerful for being presented in an unfussy and unsentimental way, with judicious use of quotations from primary sources. I imagine a serious researcher would have been happier with footnotes and detailed references, but these were unnecessary for my purposes. I would have liked a more extensive treatment of the twentieth century workhouse experience, but I'm sure I'll find this by following some of the useful suggestions for further reading.
Reviewer David Williams writes a regular blog as Writer in the North.
Reviewer David Williams writes a regular blog as Writer in the North.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Workhouse
An excellent book, fascinating, readable and informative. A must for any social historian, or family historian but also relevant for anyone with an interest in sociology.
Published 22 months ago by Mrs P
Inaccurate and poorly composed
I was very disappointed in this book which is by no-one's standards 'excellent' (as described in some other reviews here) nor even adequate. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2009 by Dog in a Flat Cap
A Turgid Volume
A rather turgid volume which, as the author acknowledges, had to be handed over to two of his colleagues to try and lick the 'unwieldy text' into some kind of shape. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2007 by Peter Higginbotham
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