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Book Cover
E-book
Author Griffin, Emma, author

Title Bread Winner : an intimate history of the Victorian economy / Emma Griffin
Published New Haven : Yale University Press, 2020

Copies

Description 1 online resource (403 pages) : illustrations (black and white)
Contents Introduction. 'The great enigma of our times' -- Part one. Work. 1. 'I worked alright, but I never got paid for my labour': women and work ; 2. 'A man's work was a man's life': men at work ; 3. 'Real drudgery': house work -- Part two. Money. 4. 'The meal-ticket': fathers and breadwinning ; 5. 'Father disappeared and left mother to brave the storm': family breakdown ; 6. 'Toil in the factory, toil in the home': working mothers -- Part three. Life. 7. 'Got a loaf, Dad?': food ; 8. 'We weren't happy, but we were a family': emotions ; 9. 'I learned to speak': making citizens -- Conclusion
Summary The overlooked story of how ordinary women and their husbands managed financially in the Victorian era - and why so many struggled despite increasing national prosperity. Nineteenth century Britain saw remarkable economic growth and a rise in real wages. But not everyone shared in the nation's wealth. Unable to earn a sufficient income themselves, working-class women were reliant on the 'breadwinner wage' of their husbands. When income failed, or was denied or squandered by errant men, families could be plunged into desperate poverty from which there was no escape. Emma Griffin unlocks the homes of Victorian England to examine the lives - and finances - of the people who lived there. Drawing on over 600 working-class autobiographies, including more than 200 written by women, Bread Winner changes our understanding of daily life in Victorian Britain
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Emma Griffin is professor of modern British history at the University of East Anglia
In English
Description based on print version record
Subject Working class families -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General.
Economic history
Social conditions
Working class families
SUBJECT Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056943
Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056675
Subject Great Britain
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020931824
ISBN 9780300252095
0300252099