Work and Unemployment 1834–1911, Volume 1: The Meanings of Work

Description

Throughout the entire period covered by this collection, in order to receive assistance when unemployed (whether through the Poor Law or government public works or unemployment insurance), people (men, most often) had to have a positive relationship to paid employment. This is the subject of Proposed Solutions to Unemployment. In "Back to the Land and Labour Colonies," the sources explore various efforts to train urban unemployed men in agricultural work. Similarly, "Emigration and Empire" looks at the ways that private societies and local and central government bodies promoted emigration schemes to send unemployed men to colonies that could use their work. "The Right to Work" changes perspective, focusing on the demands of labour and unemployed groups who made arguments that unemployed men should be given work or maintained at a level that equalled their pay. The collection finishes with "The Unemployed Workman’s Act and Unemployment Insurance," which shows that even with the promise of national government action, the moralizing language of blaming the unemployed for their condition remained. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Bibliography General introduction Volume 1 Introduction Part 1 The respectability of honest toil 1 W. Cobbett, ‘To the Labourers of England, on Their Duties and Their Rights’ (1831) 2 J. Livesey, ‘An Address to Working Men’ (1838) 3 J. F. Bray, Labour’s Wrongs and Labour’s Remedy (1839) 4 Anon., ‘The Production and Distribution of Wealth’ (1840) 5 J. Adshead, Distress in Manchester: Evidence (Tabular and Otherwise) of the State of the Labouring Classes in 1840–42 (1842) 6 The British Workman on the nobility of labour 6.1 M. Howitt, ‘Labourer’s Thanksgiving Hymn’, British Workman (1856) 6.2 Rev N. Hall, ‘The Dignity of Labour’, British Workman (1856) 6.3 ‘No. I. – The Working Man’, British Workman (1859) 7 Rev. A. Oxenden, ‘The Labourer at His Work’, in The Labouring Man’s Book (1860) 8 Dr J. C. Hall, The Trades of Sheffield . . . Read before the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 2nd ed. (1865) 9 J. B. Glasier, ‘Honest Toil’ (c. 1890) 10 G. Milligan, ‘A Man and His Work’, ‘Only a Working Man’, and ‘The Toiler’s Toast’, in Life Through Labour’s Eyes (1911) Part 2 Men and machines 11 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, The Working Man’s Companion: The Results of Machinery . . . An Address to Working Men (1831) 12 Anon., The Petition of the Undersigned Operative Spinners and Others Employed in the Spinning of Cotton Wool into Yarn, in Ashton-under-Lyne and Its Neighbourhood (1832) 13 G. C. Burrows, ‘Introduction’, ‘Letter I’, ‘Letter VI’, and ‘Appendix’ in A Word to Electors. Letters to the Present Generation on the Unrestrained Use of Modern Machinery Particularly Addressed to my Countrymen and Fellow Citizens (1832) 14 Debating political economy and the condition of the handloom weavers 14.1 G. P. Scrope, The Letter of George Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P., to the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Hand Loom Worsted Weavers, of the West-Riding of York: With Their Answer to the Same (1835) 14.2 J. Dewhirst, ‘To George Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P.’, Poor Man’s Guardian , 1 August 1835 15 J. Maxwell, Manual Labour versus Machinery (1834) 16 Anon., ‘The Present Condition of British Workmen’ (1834) 17 H. Leggeth and S. Cowle, ‘The Address of the Female Chartists of Manchester to Their Sisters of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales’ (24 July 1841) 18 W. Carpenter, ‘The Question of Machinery Fairly Stated’, ‘Machinery Creates a Demand for Manual Labour’, and ‘Condition of the Hand-Loom Weavers’, in Machinery as It Affects the Industrial Classes and the Employment of Children in Factories (1844) 19 Literary depictions of mechanization 19.1 C. Dickens, chapter 5 ‘The Key-Note’, Hard Times (1854) 19.2 B. Brierley, ‘Out of Work’, in Tales and Sketches of Lancashire Life (1885) 20 J. Samuelson, ‘Introductory’, ‘The Displacement of Hand-Labour in Agriculture’, ‘Displacement of General Labourers by Machinery’, and ‘Inferences – The General Question of Labour – Conclusion’, in Labour-Saving Machinery (1893) Part 3 Women’s work: productive and reproductive 21 J. Livesey, ‘To the Females Employed in Factories and All Our Large Manufacturing Establishments’ (1 February 1832) 22 Chartist women 22.1 Anon., ‘Miss Mary Anne Walker on the People’s Charter’, Northern Star (1842) 22.2 S. Price, ‘Address of the Female National Charter Association of Upper Honley and Smallthorn’ (1842) 23 Reports of Special Assistant Poor Law Commissioners on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture (1843) 24 E. Copley, ‘Introduction’ to The Young Women of the Factory, or Friendly Hints on Their Duties and Dangers (c. 1840) 25 Anon., ‘Female Education and Female Labour’ (1845) 26 M. F. Tupper, ‘The Workwoman’, in A Dozen Ballads for the Times about White Slavery (1854) 27 Sentimental Depictions of Working-class Women in the British Workman 27.1 Anon., ‘A Few Words to the Wives of Working Men’, British Workman (1856) 27.2 Anon., ‘Finery and Freedom, or “Lucy’s Choice”’, British Workman (1858) 28 A. Munro, ‘Our Unemployed Females, and What May Best Be Done for Them’ in Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society (1863) 29 T. Wright, ‘Working Men’s Homes and Wives’, in The Great Unwashed (1868) 30 J. B. Kinnear, ‘The Social Position of Women in the Present Age’, in The Right of Women to Labour (1873) 31 M. Harkness, ‘Palm-Workers’, in Toilers in London; or Inquiries Concerning Female Labour in the Metropolis (1889) 32 G. Reid et al., ‘Legal Restraint upon the Employment of Women in Factories before and after Childbirth’ (30 July 1892) 33 Anon., ‘Health of Lead Workers’ (December 1893) 34 E. Dilke, ‘Preface’, in A. Bulley and M. Whitley, Women’s Work (1894) 35 H. Bosanquet, Economics of Women’s Work and Wages (1907) Index