This collection of all new essays seeks to answer a series of questions surrounding the Victorian response to poverty in Britain. In short, what did various layers of society say the poor deserved and what did they do to help them? The work is organized against the backdrop of the 1834 New Poor Laws, recognizing that poverty garnered considerable attention in England because of its pervasive and painful presence. Each essay examines a different initiative to help the poor. Taking an historical tack, the essayists begin with the royal perspective and move into the responses of Church of England members, Evangelicals, and Roman Catholics; the social engagement of the literati is discussed as well. This collection reflects the real, monetary, spiritual and emotional investments of individuals, public institutions, private charities, and religious groups who struggled to address the needs of the poor.

This book describes the working and living conditions of workers, especially those in the cutlery and tools, steel and engineering trades, in Sheffield between 1850 and 1939. Housing and public heath, real wages and cyclical variations in wages, and trade union history, including the well-known outrages, receive particular attention. Sheffield produced for a world market and its prosperity was affected by world economic conditions, the rise of rival producers overseas and the armaments booms of the two world wars among other factors. As the largest industrial city in Britain, with a high proportion of well-organized skilled male workers, Sheffield became the first major city in Britain to be controlled by Labour and the influence of its social structure on local and national political representation, first through the Liberal Party and then through Labour, forms a major theme.

Originally published in 1961, the book charts the dynamics of successive phases of the adult education movement and shows the social origin and development of the ideas and attitudes of those involved with it.