The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century Free

FREE THE CLASSIC SLUM: SALFORD LIFE IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE CENTURY PDF

Today's Date: October 14, Pages: 1 2. Although essentially, the nature of slum life was quite dismal, especially by modern standards, it should be remembered that there also some less grim aspects, particularly after the First World War. It is certainly not a romanticized portrait of slum life in Edwardian England, but it does present a deeper understanding of the causes as well as outcomes of many of the problems which included extreme poverty, lack of employment, illiteracy, ill health, and other social maladies. The nature of life in a slum such as that of Salford was harsh and constantly changing. One usually was not sure whether or not there would be enough money left for food from day to day. The employment situation was grim and while some could find work that might last for an extended period, they could expect to be terminated and unable to find employment elsewhere at some point. Since the cost of living, which included mostly food, was so high, families often did not have many luxuries and many homes were almost bare since there was not money for anything except sustenance. They made do with boxes and slept in their clothes and in what other garments they could beg or filch. Of such people there were millions. It is striking to realize that there were literally millions of people in such a category and at one point, Roberts figures that 50 percent of the population in industrial cities were this class of destitute unskilled workers Aside from general employment and financial problems, the health of people living in Salford was terrible and before the Great War, there was the widespread practice of selling rotting The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century for cheaper prices and thinning out beer with water or worse, formaldehyde. For infants and children, life in slums was especially rough. The mortality rate for newborns was dismal and sometimes this would be an opportunity for relief as opposed to sorrow since parents often could not afford to feed yet another child. Furthermore, children were often not supervised and died in accidents or had deformed legs from rickets. These children were often poorly clothed and suffered from lice and other diseases as a result of poor hygiene and unsanitary living conditions. Some houses sparkled" In summary, while many of those in slums lived in abject poverty and squalor, one must not think that they did not care about how they were perceived. One particularly memorable example is his statement about class mobility in the slums. They were only too concerned to maintain position The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century their own stratum. Inside the working class as a whole there existed… a stratified form of society whose implications and consequences have hardly yet been fully explored" While this theory will be explored in following paragraphs, it is useful to think about at this point as we move forward to examine the underclass relationship to imperialism and the upper classes. All Rights Reserved. Advanced Search. Advanced search All these words. Date to. Author Exact author. Send to Friend Share. More Info. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. ResoluteReader: Robert Roberts - The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. A study which combines personal reminiscences with careful historical research, the myth of the 'good old days' is summarily dispensed with; Robert Roberts describes the period of his childhood, when the main affect of poverty in Edwardian Salford was degredation, and, despite great resources of human courage, few could escape such a prison. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published July 26th by Penguin first published September 30th More Details Original Title. Other Editions 3. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Classic Slumplease sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Apr 25, Jan-Maat added it Shelves: 20th-centuryautobiography-memoirbritish-isles. The author's memoir of growing up around the time of WWI in a slum neighbourhood of Salford where his parents had a simple shop. Customers preferred to be served by his mother because she sliced meat so finely that it looked like more on the plate. Contains reflections on politics, culture, and the role of pawn shops. The principal theme is the story how the author became himself through the medium of The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century - he recalls, during WWI loosing the family sugar ration one week on account of the thre The author's memoir of growing up around the time of WWI in a slum neighbourhood of Salford where his parents had a simple shop. The principal theme is the story how the author became himself through the medium of reading - he recalls, during WWI loosing the family sugar ration one week on account of the three musketeersthough a kind woman helps him scoop up the mass of damp sugar off the street and into an improvised bag, however even once dry it remains resolutely grey - they still sell it though. Eventually the family breaks up, the mother can't stand the work while the father is obsessed and sees the shop as a gold mine. The flip side of this book is an insight into why the poor remain poor, ie it is a distinctly expensive way of life. Few people are prepared to provide goods and services because so much credit has to be extended to families who don't have ready cash, those who do take that risk are keen to squeeze every farthing out of their customers. Roberts' family were sole traders and do not even buy wholesale, but for the most part are buying and reselling plus their own profit margin to those with no access to other shops. Jan 08, Paul rated it it was amazing Shelves: history. The author Robert Roberts wrote this book, born in wrote this in the latter part of his life, and it is a recollection of his first 25 years in Salford. But like their neighbours, poverty was the wolf at the door that could strike them at any time it wished. During the Salford slum clearances of the s and 60s, he watched as his personal history was being removed from the face of the earth. Many of those who had left, especially the young held no regrets about its removal. Engels had referred to Salford as the classic slum with a mixture of the ship canal, mills and engineering surrounding them. Pre-First World War class divisions were of the greatest consequences, and many looked upon social and economic inequality as the law of nature. Roberts himself noted that in the latter part of the twentieth century a number of middle-class writers, historians and sociologists tended to sentimentalise the working class, often depicting them as cruder and caricaturing the whole class. Roberts paints a life for the slum dweller that was far more nuanced, and that before and after the Russian Revolution, had little to do with the Marxist speakers and agitators as the problems had little to with them, but more to do with the middle-class worries and interests. They had accepted a steady decline in living standards but wished for nothing more than to be respectful The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century respected. For them being working-class was more like being part of a caste structure where movement was frowned upon. What Roberts does in his book is shine a light into what were the dark areas of the city, a place many avoided unless necessary. While Great Britain had an Empire and many people made lots of money, that money had not reached into the slums. Roberts describes the life in detail in the early years of the twentieth century and the reader engages with him, with the urge to make sure that these slums are gone forever. This is one of the most important books on the history of the working-class and poverty in northern England at the beginning of The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century twentieth century. Roberts born three years before my own Grandmother, and a couple miles apart, but had similar experiences of their earlier years in the slums. Some may prefer to talk about the more decadent part of society of this time, but you should never forget there is more than one story to tell. I can highly recommend this book. Sep 19, Peter rated it it was amazing. The Classic Slum by Robert Roberts is a unique and fascinating book. It is also a book that presents a story that needs to be read if for no other reason than to become puzzled by the Goodreads general summary. Roberts does not contend that living in the slum of Salford was an enjoyable experience, but he does make it quite clear that before World War 1 it was a place where the underclass carried on their lives without great angst, desire to revolt or even overtly complain too much; rather, Salfo The Classic Slum by Robert Roberts is a unique and fascinating book. Roberts does not contend that living in the slum of Salford was an enjoyable experience, but he does make it quite clear that before World War 1 it was a place where the underclass carried on their lives without great angst, desire to revolt or even overtly complain too much; rather, Salford was an intricate world where the underclass existed through the varying levels of social status within The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century world. The people of Salford were loyal to the crown, conservative in their views and through decades of poverty still willing to keep their place as the underclass. To read this book is to be given a first-hand view of poverty and personal pride, how social insurance existed where no one had any money to purchase financial insurance, where a person's status on their block was as precious as a King's ransom, and where what we in the 21C do see as in need of immediate assistance was, in fact, of little or no concern to the inhabitants of Salford. In Salford, a person of integrity, honesty and sensitivity to their peers was all that one needed to be. A revolution? Not a chance. We must not read history backwards. This is the first lesson today's readers must learn if they want to understand history. Of course malnutrition, illiteracy and needless illness and suffering are major concerns, but these questions need to be addressed in the context of the times. This book allows the reader the opportunity to see an Edwardian slum from the eyes of a person who was a child in the times, and grew up watching, and then recording, his family's struggle to maintain their status. The war changed everything and this book carefully records how the world shifted rapidly after It for me, the revelation of why the people of Salford were content within their social class, why they had no desire to revolt or dream or be part of a revolution was eye-opening. I urge everyone to read this book. It will open your eyes. View 1 comment. May 05, Martin Empson rated it really liked it. This is a book seeped in the sad history of Salford, where tens of thousands suffered from poverty and unemployment. Occasionally, those men and women fought back, struggling for change. Most of the time, they were ignored by the establishment, except when church or schoolmaster The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century them on morality and behaviour. While I don't necessarily agree with every aspect of Roberts' analysis I'd like to see The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century studies of the people "This is no sentimental, rose-tinted view of working-class past. While I don't necessarily agree with every aspect of Roberts' analysis I'd like to see more studies of the people who made up the "undermass" for instance, and to what extent they could break out of this poverty trapbecause this account is rooted in Roberts' own recollections, it is a living history one in which real people lived, suffered and struggled, sometimes laughing, often crying. For these reasons it deserves to be read by everyone, even those who have never visited the city. Jan 10, Rich Murkin rated it it was amazing. This is one of the best history books I have ever read. A supreme example of first person social history which truly brings to life a period and environment. Aug 20, Sandra O'donovan rated it it was amazing. Considering the subject matter it's very enjoyable read with the odd laugh out loud moment. I remember the savage dissatisfaction with his spouse of a young brass moulder. A third, swathed in clothes, permitted her husband only the act per se and, on her mother's advice, allowed no "dirty" manual contact whatever. Only the chargehand apostate from a militant religious sect spoke of love life in a happier vein. He claimed that his partner, at the peak of sexual congress and on sectarian instructionwas wont to cry "Rapture! Praise the Lord! But the noise, he said, disturbed the neighbours, who beat on the bedroom wall with a boot. Another, a sad little man, complained that not only did his wife take no interest in proceedings, but she also insisted on a regular emolument of sixpence. She was, he said, saving for a holiday at Blackpool. Highly recommended. Feb 19, Trevor Schaefer rated it liked it Shelves: non-fiction- readhistory. Robert Roberts writes from his own experience of growing up in Salford. He paints a stark picture of the overwhelming poverty of one of the worst slums in Manchester.

Today's Date: October 20, Pages: 1 2. One can only assume that this is the case because of the perception that the social order was something ordained by nature and thus there was nothing about that should warrant outrage. Because of this feeling of a natural hierarchy, the upper classes did not have much to fear from their lower class counterparts, especially considering that they were incredibly committed to traditional values and voted in favor of the Tories almost unanimously. Although there was a new and vital socialist movement beginning in the country not to mention throughout the West the people who might have most benefited from such a wide scale movement abhorred the idea. Certainly, nothing could have been better for their upper class Edwardian counterparts and Roberts states that they were not at all in the beginning afraid of a proletariat uprising since this was not at all in the nature of these generally patriotic and pious citizens. Indeed, instead of looking past patriotic sentiment, these men marched off to one of the most grisly and deadly wars in history, all at the behest of the revered upper class. The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century the Great War might have changed life in the slums forever, it cannot be forgotten that these lower classes were not the eternal victims of the class order at least not explicitly. Until the changes brought about by the Great War they were some of the most steadfast and loyal supporters and admirers of the royal family. They emulated the lives of the rich, even with a barebones existence and instead of retaliating against them; they simply strove to honor them through a sort of misguided flattery. While this may have allowed them to live for something higher than themselves, this seems almost as though it must be somehow backwards, especially when thought of in the context of proletariat revolts that were occurring in Russia, for example. This acceptance of the social order during the period of rapid industrialization The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century something natural was one of the main reasons why there was not a great deal of grumbling among the lower classes prior to the First World War. Furthermore, although their lives were tough, it was not as though their lives merely consisted of impersonal attempts for daily bread. These were people with diversions and interests just as the upper classes had although doubtlessly of lower quality. Those in the Great Britain of seventy years ago were almost self-contained communities… Culture, pleasure, and need found outlet through one theatre and later, three cinemas a dancing room, two coy brothels, eight bookmakers, and a private moneylender" This brings up the question of the difference between being poor and living in poverty. Although these people were extremely poor and suffered a great many setbacks throughout their lives, The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century were not morally or spiritually bankrupt. Roberts notes that they were often very generous, and relied on their complex social networks for security. Furthermore, aside from having at least some degree of compassion for one another, they also lived lives according to strict moral codes, emulating the upper classes. Being respectable in Edwardian times was just as important for a family of good standing as was for these lower classes and thus their lives The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century a great deal of meaning. If they lived in poverty, this would mean that they would do anything for money and would resort to murder and violence to obtain their needs. One needed to know how wealth had been acquired. The fruits of prostitution we condemned. This shows that there was a strict morality underlying this society, even in the midst of grinding financial strife. Although society was beginning to change rapidly after the war, it did take some time for all the liberal ambitions to truly reach the majority of the working people in slums. Still, the Great War did begin to solve some of the problems. Children looked better fed. There were far fewer prosecutions for child neglect. The people living in these slums had deserved this for all of their hard work—without them England would not have grown into the industrial and military powerhouse it was around and just after the Edwardian period. Literacy, health, and general working conditions improved and ushered in a new age in England. All Rights Reserved. Advanced Search. Advanced search All these words. Date to. Author Exact author. Send to Friend Share. More Info. Popular Pages Home. Privacy Policy.