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2 Obras 270 Miembros 4 Reseñas

Obras de Robert Roberts

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Fecha de nacimiento
1905
Fecha de fallecimiento
1974
Género
male
Nacionalidad
UK
Ocupaciones
sociologist
Relaciones
Roberts, Glyn (son)

Miembros

Reseñas

My forebears, although not mentioned by name, lived, worked, and died in the slums of Salford. Indeed, one of the street courts where my gggggreat grandfather lived is discussed.

This isn't just an interesting look at social history--this is a direct line right into the lives of my ancestors.

Definitely worth the read.
 
Denunciada
MsMixte | 2 reseñas más. | Aug 13, 2022 |
More than just a college assigned reading text. This was quit entertaining and not too bleak. Social norms, dating, food, health care, sex, it's all there, addressed in an aloof anthropological tone.
 
Denunciada
Sandydog1 | 2 reseñas más. | May 13, 2020 |
The Classic Slum – Brilliant Social History of the Slums

I have recently re-read this classic book of social history, The Classic Slum wipes away any ‘romantic’ thoughts about early 20th century poverty in Salford. The author Robert Roberts wrote this book, born in 1905 wrote this in the latter part of his life, and it is a recollection of his first 25 years in Salford. Roberts was born into a slum family in Salford, but they were slightly better off than many as they owned the ‘corner’ shop. 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 1950s 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.

What Roberts does is remind people how hard life was in the slum or as he calls it ‘his village’ where existed the whole working class, which had its own form of social stratification amongst themselves. 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. Clearly, they ‘visited’ the slum but because they were not from the slum, they judged everything from their educated middle-class position in life.

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.

Whatever the outlook of Edwardian England millions of people still retained the outlook and thought patterns imposed on them by their Victorian ‘betters’. They had accepted a steady decline in living standards but wished for nothing more than to be respectful and 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. Even when the rich and middle-classes had ‘safaris’ into the slums, the poor were looked at as if savages and wild animals, like many of the peoples of the Empire.

What we see is the enforced deference in place pre-1914 and that on coming home a change in attitude, and no longer willing to accept ‘their lot’. 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 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.
… (más)
2 vota
Denunciada
atticusfinch1048 | 2 reseñas más. | Jan 8, 2018 |
 
Denunciada
yarrafaye | Apr 22, 2020 |

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Estadísticas

Obras
2
Miembros
270
Popularidad
#85,638
Valoración
4.0
Reseñas
4
ISBNs
52

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