Name: A Hundred English Working-Class Lives, 1900-1945
ISBN: 978-3-031-55084-3

Overview

Authors:

Rebecca Ball ⁰

Rebecca Ball
1. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
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Examines the lives of one hundred English working-class individuals
Offers a unique perspective on their life including schooling, employment, life on home front, family relationships
Contributes to key social history debates through a microhistory analysis of autobiographical material

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About this book

Stanley Rice, born in London in 1905, began his autobiography by stating that his life was ‘an ordinary average life with all its ups and downs’. Stanley may have described his life as ordinary, and yet he lived through a period of rapid social change, including two world wars. Despite this, Stanley assumed that his life story would be of little interest to most readers, as he had not achieved great fame or any notable accolades. This book argues that this is exactly why historians should focus on such life stories, as there is much to be gained by focusing on memories of ‘ordinary average lives’, as they can expand our knowledge of the past, often revealing firsthand experiences that have been excluded from the historical record. This book does not intend to be a general social history of the working class. Rather, it is a work of memory, drawing upon a microhistory methodology to examine how a sample of one hundred working-class autobiographers remembered and wrote about living through years that were punctuated by two worldwide conflicts and a global economic depression.

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

Front Matter

Pages i-viii

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Introduction
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 1-20
Family Relationships
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 21-49
Death
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 51-78
Absence
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 79-108
Education
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 109-138
Employment
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 139-166
Housing
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 167-190
Leisure and Pastimes
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 191-215
Consumption of Necessities and Vices
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 217-241
Conclusion
- Rebecca Ball
Pages 243-256
Back Matter

Pages 257-269

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Authors and Affiliations

Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

Rebecca Ball

About the author

Rebecca Ball is Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: A Hundred English Working-Class Lives, 1900-1945
Authors: Rebecca Ball
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55084-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-55083-6Published: 12 July 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-55086-7Due: 26 July 2025
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-55084-3Published: 11 July 2024
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 269
Topics: History of Britain and Ireland, Modern History, Social History, Memory Studies

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A Hundred English Working-Class Lives, 1900-1945