Category: Poverty
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Shoplifting: woman stealing a tube of toothpaste, 1962 (Photo by RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images) I recently wrote an article for The Conversation on the history of shoplifting, which has been a research interest of mine for some time now. In the article, I drew on was the memoirs written by women who had been…
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Content note – this article contains material relating to domestic violence, sexual abuse and childhood trauma. Image: Woman’s Wrongs, 1874 by Joseph Swain. Image via Getty Images. Domestic violence was not always taken seriously by the police or the state and was viewed as an almost inevitable aspect of working-class life. Sadly, the experience of…
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Salford Housing, 1970: Image via Getty Images One of the key aspects of my research is about the meaning of home. Homes are often idealised spaces: in 1933, for example, the Charity Organisation Quarterly declared that home was ‘the place where humankind can be shy, sensitive, reserved, proud.’[1] This ideal can be seen through the…
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A family group admire the lit Christmas Tree in Church Street after a fresh fall of snow circa December 1954. Photo by Liverpool Post and Echo Archive/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images We are perhaps used to seeing idealised images of Christmases past, as the tradition of decorating trees, exchanging cards and gifts was popularised in Britain…
Living on Poverty Street: Working-Class Memoirs and Life-Writing in Britain, 1918-1979 