Pauper Voices, Public Opinion and Workhouse Reform in Mid-Victorian England

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. From Resistance to Reform: Changing Attitudes to the New Poor Law Workhouse in England and Wales

   • Peter Jones, Steven King

   Pages 1-38

3. Not That Joseph Rowntree: The Amateur Workhouse Inspector

   • Peter Jones, Steven King

   Pages 39-72

4. Pauper Letter Writers and the Workhouse Experience

   • Peter Jones, Steven King

   Pages 73-108

5. Bearing Witness and Thinking Again

   • Peter Jones, Steven King

   Pages 109-116

6. Back Matter

   Pages 117-136

   PDF

This book represents the first attempt to identify and describe a workhouse reform ‘movement’ in mid- to late-nineteenth-century England, beyond the obvious candidates of the Workhouse Visiting Society and the voices of popular critics such as Charles Dickens and Florence Nightingale. It is a subject on which the existing workhouse literature is largely silent, and this book therefore fills a considerable gap in our understanding of contemporary attitudes towards institutional welfare. Although many scholars have touched on the more obvious strands of workhouse criticism noted above, few have gone beyond these to explore the possibility that a concerted ‘movement’ existed that sought to place pressure on those with responsibility for workhouse administration, and to influence the trajectory of workhouse policy.

• Workhouse Visiting Society
• Charles Dickens
• Poor Law Boards
• Poor Law Commissioners
• New Poor Law
• institutional welfare

“This book is important for the fresh sources it uncovers, the methods it combines, and its core arguments. … This study suggests many promising paths for further research, and scholars of the Poor Law, poverty, welfare, and the press will find it valuable reading. I think it would also be an excellent book to teach about historiography, historical methods, and, of course, the Poor Law.” (Marjorie Levine-Clark, Victorian Studies, Vol. 64 (4), 2022)

• Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

  Peter Jones, Steven King

Peter Jones is a Research Associate at Nottingham Trent University, UK.

Steven King is Professor of Economic and Social History at Nottingham Trent University, UK.

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