The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

549 Pages·2010·16.535 MB·English

by  Jonathan Rose

The InTellecTual lIfe of The brITIsh WorkIng classes
Jonathan Rose is Professor of History at Drew University and founder of the Society for
the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
‘Every so often a book appears that challenges the received wisdom on a particular subject,
reverses what has been taken for granted and sparks off new ideas that can have
consequences for the future of society. Jonathan Rose’s large volume does just that.’
—John Calder, Scotsman
‘an astonishing read’—Ian Sansom, Guardian
‘. . . a book of major significance for British social history and a troubling text for anyone
concerned about the destiny of British society’—Paul Smith, Times Literary Supplement
‘Rose’s book . . . which has the great virtues of clarity, wit and pungent opinion . . . is a
brilliant and often moving record of what was achieved—a history, in its way, of discovery, of
individual lives enhanced by the desire to know more and to know differently . . . it deserves
its place alongside Richard Hoggart and Martin Weiner—alongside the writers who have
yielded important new insights into our cultural ancestry and who shed light on ourselves’
—Ian Jack, Daily Telegraph
‘A superb book . . . much more comprehensive than anything by Raymond Williams or
Richard Hoggart, and bears comparison with the best work of Edward Thompson and the
late Raphael Samuel. I found the experience of immersion in it to be lastingly moving—like
reading the poetry of John Clare, say, or Thomas Gray.’—Christopher Hitchens, The Times
‘. . . Mr. Rose has written a work of staggering ambition whose real aim is to rehabilitate the
democratic idea that the best of culture is for everyone. . . . [Those] who care about litera-
ture, democracy and equality can rejoice, because Jonathan Rose has given them something
new and important to read.’—Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal
‘It is hard to stress how important this book is. Mr Rose has swept away the lingering
guesswork and approximation about the intellectual life of the British working classes’
—The Economist
‘a treasure chest . . . a feast of the memories and pleasures of British working-class readers’
—Paul Foot, The Oldie
‘a brilliantly readable work which exposes the lie behind . . . the patronising notion that
works of great literature, art or music are irrelevant to the lives of ordinary people’
—Philip Pullman, Daily Mail
‘beautifully written, shrewdly perceptive and consistently engaging’
—John Gardiner, BBC History Magazine

The InTellecTual
lIfe of The brITIsh
WorkIng classes
JonaThan rose
YAlE UnIvERSITY PRESS
nEW HAvEn AnD lOnDOn
Copyright © 2001 by Jonathan Rose
First published in paperback as a Yale nota Bene book in 2002
Second edition published in paperback in 2010
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr lewis Fund.
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (be-
yond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright law and except
by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
“A Conservative Canon: Cultural lag in British Working-Class Reading Habits,” from
Libraries and Culture 33:1, pp. 98–104. Copyright © by the University of Texas Press. All
rights reserved.
“Willingly to School: The Working-Class Response to Elementary Education in Britain,
1875–1918,” from Journal of British Studies, 32:2, pp. 114–38, published by the University
of Chicago Press. © 1993 by the north American Conference on British Studies. All rights
reserved.
For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:
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Set in Adobe Garamond and news Gothic by northern Phototypesetting Co. ltd, Bolton
Printed in Great Britain by Hobbs the Printers ltd, Totton, Hampshire
The library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:
Rose, Jonathan, 1952–
The intellectual life of the British working classes/Jonathan Rose.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBn 978–0–300–08886–1
1 Working class—Books and reading—Great Britain—History. 2. Working class—Great
Britain—Intellectual life. 3. Books and reading—Great Britain—History. 4. Great Britain
—Intellectual life. I. Title.
Z1039.l3 R67 2001
028’.9’0941—dc21 00–068562
ISBn: 978–0–300–15365–1 (pbk)
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Introduction to the Second Edition xi
vi Contents
UK prelims 30/8/02 3:27 pm Page vii
Tables
1.1 Favorite Authors of Early Labour MPs, 1906 42
4.1 Holdings in Eighteenth-Century Scottish Libraries 117
4.2 Favorite Novelists of London WEA Students, 1936 139
4.3 Guides to Book Selection, 1944 140
5.1 Party Affiliation 147
5.2 Religion in Which Respondent Was Raised 147
5.3 Father’s Class 147
5.4 School Experience: Did the Respondent Enjoy School? 150
5.5 Rating Teachers:Did the Respondent Like the Teachers? 151
5.6 Respondents Reporting Corporal Punishment 169
5.7 Feelings on Leaving School 173
5.8 Respondents Reporting Parental Interest in Their Education 174
5.9 Cross-tabulating Parental Interest 175
5.10 Attitudes toward Education, 1944 176
5.11 Respondents Expressing Regrets Concerning Education 183
6.1 Name Recognition in Working-Class Sheffield, 1918 194
6.2 Expressed Interest in Radio Programs, 1938 205
6.3 Cultural Interests of Newspaper Readers, 1948 205
6.4 Ability to Identify Cabinet Members, 1942 222
6.5A Reading in Parents’ Home, 1944 231
6.5B Average Hours Per Week Spent Reading, 1944 231
6.6 Books Read by Senior School Pupils, 1940 232
8.1 Percentage of Female to Male WEA Students, 1913–28 290
8.2 Hours Per Week Devoted to Reading, London WEA Students, 1936 290
UK prelims 30/8/02 3:27 pm Page viii
Acknowledgements
A small army of librarians, archivists, and public record office workers assisted me
with my research. Special thanks are due to John Burnett, who generously gave me
access to his collection of unpublished working-class autobiographies at Brunel
University Library; and to the British Library, the New York Public Library, and
the London office of the Workers’ Educational Association, where most of my
research was done. I owe a similar debt of gratitude to Paul Thompson and his
coworkers at the Sociology Department of the University of Essex. They
conducted the massive oral history project on family, work, and community life
before 1918, which is the basis of Thompson’s book The Edwardians(1975). My
Chapter Five sifts, analyzes, and quantifies the interviews they collected, though
my conclusions are not necessarily theirs.
Bill Bell, John Burnett, Sondra Miley Cooney, Anne Humpherys, Gerhard
Joseph, Robert L. Patten, John Rodden, and David Vincent all slogged through
the manuscript, and their comments did much to improve it. I must thank all my
friends in the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, who
together provided an education in the social history of literature. The National
Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, the British
Institute of the United States, the American Historical Association, and Drew
University provided the time and the money needed to complete this project.
Earlier versions of sections of this book were published in the Journal of the History
of Ideas, Libraries and Culture, the Journal of British Studies, Albion, and Biblion,
and I am grateful to their editors for allowing me to rework that material in this
volume.
Permission to quote or cite unpublished documents was generously granted by
the Bishopsgate Institute, the BBC Written Archives Centre, the British Library,
the British Library of Political and Economic Science, the Brunel University
Library, the Buckinghamshire County Record Office, the University of
Edinburgh Library, the County Record Office Huntingdon, the Imperial War
Museum, Keele University, Elizabeth Kirtland, Terence A. Lockett, the University
of London Library, the Marx Memorial Library (London), the Mitchell Library,
the National Library of Scotland, the Labour History Archive and Study Centre
at the National Museum of Labour History, the Newcastle Central Library, the
UK prelims 30/8/02 3:27 pm Page ix
Acknowledgements ix
Newport Central Library, the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, the Oxford University Archives (Bodleian Library), the
Rotherham Central Library Archives and Local Studies Section, the Ruskin
College Library, the Sheffield Local Studies Library, the South Wales Miners’
Library, the Southwark Local Studies Library, the Suffolk Record Office
(Ipswich), and the Waltham Forest Local Studies Library. A few of my attempts
to contact copyright holders were unsuccessful, so I take this opportunity to thank
them, wherever they may be.
Most of all, I thank my wife Gayle—for everything. This book is for her.