Skip to main content

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
Cancel
×
×
Home
  • Home
Chapter
  • Get access
    Buy the print book
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    Log in Register Recommend to librarian
  • Cited by 6
  • Cited by
    Crossref Citations
    Crossref logo
    This (lowercase (translateProductType product.productType)) has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.
    Dalgaard, Carl-Johan and Strulik, Holger 2016. Physiology and Development: Why the West is Taller Than the Rest. The Economic Journal, Vol. 126, Issue. 598, p. 2292.
    Barras, Richard 2016. A Wealth of Buildings: Marking the Rhythm of English History. p. 103.
    Bean, Jessica S. 2015. Research in Economic History. Vol. 31, Issue. , p. 193.
    Bean, Jessica S. 2015. ‘To help keep the home going’: female labour supply in interwar London. The Economic History Review, Vol. 68, Issue. 2, p. 441.
    Bean, Jessica S. and Boyer, George R. 2009. The Trade Boards Act of 1909 and the Alleviation of Household Poverty. British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, Issue. 2, p. 240.
    Higgins, David M. and Mordhorst, Mads 2008. Reputation and export performance: Danish butter exports and the British market, c.1880–c.1914. Business History, Vol. 50, Issue. 2, p. 185.
    ×
  • Print publication year: 2004
  • Online publication date: March 2008

11 - Living standards, 1860–1939

Export citation
Summary
The trend in working-class living standards from the Great Exhibition to the eve of the Second World War has generated relatively little controversy compared to the debate over living standards during the industrial revolution. This chapter focuses on the living standards of the working class, roughly the bottom 75-80 per cent of the occupied population. Next, it discusses movements in quantifiable aspects of living standards and Liberal welfare reforms. The chapter examines how increases in income affected the daily lives of particular working-class families, or of what it meant to such families for the household head to be sick. The high rates of poverty revealed by the social surveys indicate that, despite the improvements in material living standards from 1860 to 1939, a large proportion of manual workers experienced economic difficulties at some point in their lives. Most contemporaries and historians concluded that friendly societies were dominated by skilled workers, largely because few labourers could afford the premiums.

Keywords:

Recommend this book

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this book to your organisation's collection.

The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain
  • Online ISBN: 9781139054539
  • Book DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521820370
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to *

CAPTCHA *

Skip to the audio challenge
×
Ashby, M. K. 1961. Joseph Ashby of Tysoe, 1859–1919: A Study of English Village Life. Cambridge.
Bell, Lady Florence. 1907. At the Works: A Study of a Manufacturing Town.
Greenwood, Walter. 1933. Love on the Dole.
London, Jack. 1903. The People of the Abyss.
Morrison, Arthur. 1894. Tales of Mean Streets.
Orwell, George. 1937. The Road to Wigan Pier.
Pember Reeves, Maud. 1913. Round about a Pound a Week.
Roberts, R. 1971. The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century. Manchester.
Rowntree, B. S. 1901. Poverty: A Study of Town Life.
Tressell, R. 1955. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.
Williams, Alfred. 1915. Life in a Railway Factory.
Cancel
Confirm
×