Death, Grief and Poverty in Britain, 1870–1914Cambridge University Press, 2005 M07 25 - 294 pages With high mortality rates, it has been assumed that the poor in Victorian and Edwardian Britain did not mourn their dead. Contesting this approach, Julie-Marie Strange studies the expression of grief among the working class, demonstrating that poverty increased - rather than deadened - it. She illustrates the mourning practices of the working classes through chapters addressing care of the corpse, the funeral, the cemetery, commemoration, and high infant mortality rates. The book draws on a broad range of sources to analyse the feelings and behaviours of the labouring poor, using not only personal testimony but also fiction, journalism, and official reports. It concludes that poor people did not only use spoken or written words to express their grief, but also complex symbols, actions and, significantly, silence. This book will be an invaluable contribution to an important and neglected area of social and cultural history. |
From inside the book
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Page viii
... seem, I would like to thank the staff at Wavertree Sports Centre in Liverpool; classes here saved my sanity on more than one occasion. Geographical mobility means that many friendships shift shape as the years go by and I would like to ...
... seem, I would like to thank the staff at Wavertree Sports Centre in Liverpool; classes here saved my sanity on more than one occasion. Geographical mobility means that many friendships shift shape as the years go by and I would like to ...
Page 11
... seems to deny the working - class autobiographer the capacity for human emotion which he implicitly confers on those in wealthier circumstances . Indeed , he uses an example of ' atypical ' grief ( a father who abandoned work on the ...
... seems to deny the working - class autobiographer the capacity for human emotion which he implicitly confers on those in wealthier circumstances . Indeed , he uses an example of ' atypical ' grief ( a father who abandoned work on the ...
Page 12
... seems dissatisfied with narrow sociologies of class and the materialist paradigm of emotion. Despite massive shifts in the theory and practice of social history since Vincent's essay, however, there has been almost no revision of ...
... seems dissatisfied with narrow sociologies of class and the materialist paradigm of emotion. Despite massive shifts in the theory and practice of social history since Vincent's essay, however, there has been almost no revision of ...
Page 13
... seems to suggest , will pass to renewal . The death of Michael Snowden repre- sents an alternative to the excesses of commercialism and the indignity of the pauper grave ; it reflects the humanity of Jane Snowden and her idealistic ...
... seems to suggest , will pass to renewal . The death of Michael Snowden repre- sents an alternative to the excesses of commercialism and the indignity of the pauper grave ; it reflects the humanity of Jane Snowden and her idealistic ...
Page 20
... seems to miss the mark'.75 As critics of Arie`s warn, cultural change rarely fits into convenient chronological categories and cannot be examined in isolation from per- ceptions of social, cultural and economic change or factors such as ...
... seems to miss the mark'.75 As critics of Arie`s warn, cultural change rarely fits into convenient chronological categories and cannot be examined in isolation from per- ceptions of social, cultural and economic change or factors such as ...
Contents
1 | |
2 Life sickness and death | 27 |
3 Caring for the corpse | 66 |
4 The funeral | 98 |
reassessing the pauper burial | 131 |
the cemetery as a landscape for grief | 163 |
7 Loss memory and the management of feeling | 194 |
8 Grieving for dead children | 230 |
death grief and the Great War | 263 |
Bibliography | 274 |
Index | 290 |
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Common terms and phrases
Anfield Cemetery argued Asylum babies BALS ABZ belief bereaved body BOHT Bolton Bolton Burial Board burial ground burial insurance burial service burial space cadaver Cambridge Catholic cemetery child Childhood classes coffin commemoration common grave concerning context corpse culture of death customs Cwmardy D. H. Lawrence dead deceased died dying Edwardian emotional emphasised exhumation expression father funeral Gissing grave deeds grave owners grave space grief guardians Haslingden headstone highlights History Ibid identity implied infant interment Jalland Jones Lancashire Lancet Liverpool Daily Post living London loss LVRO 352 HEA Manchester Maud Pember Reeves memory mortality mother mourning neighbours noted notions OH Transcript Oxford parents parish pauper burial pauper grave perceived perceptions post-mortem poverty private grave public grave Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Reeves relatives represented respectability rites rituals sense sick significance social spiritual stillbirth story suggests Tape University Press Victorian whilst widow woman women workhouse working-class culture