As children, most of us were harangued by our elders about how easy we have it compared to the drudgery they had to endure. It's a litany familiar to all generations: The snowy uphill walks to and from school; the severely rationed morsels of food they were grateful for even though they invariably only got cold liver and wood chips to eat; the threadbare, out of style hand-me-downs they wrapped their emaciated bodies in; the lack of any modern convenience whatsoever--these specters of an impoverished past have been used to taunt the young out of their smug, privileged complacency. Such efforts usually fail, as tales of real suffering tend to have a caricatured unreality in the minds of those who can scarcely imagine what real deprivation is like. Or so we're told.
My understanding of that kind of hardship is still only academic, but I have always been drawn to real life accounts of squalor and degradation, perhaps because my father was raised during the Great Depression of the 1930s and, typical of those of his generation, he revealed few details of his childhood. Growing up, I learned that those who were able to escape poverty possessed a certain inner resolve and strength of character. I also saw that not everyone was so fortunate.
A few writers, journalists, economists and philosophers have taken the time to document the hardships of those caught underfoot, sometimes to prove a theory, encourage or enact reform, or merely to express outrage. Here are a few non-fiction titles that critiqued and cataloged the growing humanitarian crisis that came about as the result of the Industrial Revolution in England between 1844 and 1901--roughly the span of the Victorian age. These books give us a clearer picture of real life as it was for the vast majority of people in nineteenth century Great Britain.
The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1845) by Friedrich Engels
Engels describes firsthand the piteous working and living conditions of the English working class at a time of unprecedented industrial growth in excruciating detail, backed up by cited research and very telling quotes from government reports and newspaper stories of the day. Child labor, brutally long workdays, hazardous working conditions, grim living standards, poor public sanitation, crime and low wages were steadily on the increase in 1844 as industry rushed to meet the demands of an emerging global marketplace for goods produced in Great Britain.
Most of his observations concern the city of Manchester, where--and no small irony here--he ran a textile mill owned by his family and donated most of his salary to his pal, Karl Marx to help him finish Das Kapital.
The work of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx fell out of fashion after their names and theories became attached to oppressive twentieth century Communist regimes, but their criticisms of the emerging industrial world inspired much needed social reforms. Politics aside, Engels raises some good questions. The debate over the responsibility of private corporations for the well being of the communities in which they operate makes this work still relevant to twenty-first century readers. Not exactly an easy read, but it does put our own times into perspective. Some of the political and economic theorizing may cause your eyes to glaze over a bit, but the shocking reality he describes and his sincere concern for the state of things will bring you back to Earth.
Download The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 from Project Gutenberg
Reminiscences of a Workhouse Medical Officer (1889) by Joseph Rogers, M.D.
In 1834, Parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment Act which ended an over 200 year old system of of parish-based relief to England's poor. This system was replaced by the workhouse system in which the homeless, sick and infirm were warehoused in a prison-like environment designed to save money and discourage indigence. Neither of those goals was achieved. The workhouse system was badly run and the workhouses themselves became nightmarish dens of human suffering. Joseph Rogers was a London medical officer in the workhouse system who bravely sought and achieved many landmark reforms in the battle for better, more humane public health.
For thirty years, Rogers fought corruption, cronyism, graft and institutional dysfunction to strengthen cleanliness standards, establish public mortuaries, set up dispensaries, set dietary guidelines and hire qualified nurses and staff. His very public crusade for reform brought him into conflict with his superiors, but his tenacity led to the establishment of laws and standards that not only improved the condition of workhouse wards, but proved that acting humanely and compassionately towards the inmates actually saved money and improved public health for the entire population. Sixty years after his death, the workhouse system of health care for the poor would be supplanted by Britain's National Health Service.
The dry, understated prose of his memoir contains a few touching stories about the patients he served. He also describes in some detail the bureaucratic battles he fought on their behalf, often to his own professional detriment. This is a very matter-of-fact but nonetheless dramatic tale of a man steadfastly committed to the practice of medicine who spearheaded much needed reforms against incredible odds. I'm surprised no one has made a movie based on this book. It would be a real corker.
Download Reminiscences of a Workhouse Medical Officer from Archive.org
The People of the Abyss (1902) by Jack London
This a short but harrowing piece of investigative journalism in which American author Jack London goes undercover to better understand the hardships of the impoverished people of East London. He lived among them, slept in doss houses and charitable shelters which were more like prisons, talked with people he met and observed firsthand the often savagely indifferent ways in which the working poor and homeless were treated in an empire at the very peak of its wealth and world influence. Informative of our age, dense with chilling realism and well written, this is perhaps Jack London's most poignant survival story.
About halfway through, the focus of the book shifts from his personal experiences to cited statistics and quotes from a series of newspaper articles that reveal glaring inequities in British law towards the poor. In 1901, the penalty for stealing even a loaf of bread was much steeper than the penalties for assault or domestic abuse, and the author indicts the British legal system for criminalizing poverty itself. His tone is grave and full of compassion and outrage, His firsthand observations create a fascinating snapshot of the end of the glory days of the British Empire by looking straight into the eyes of its most downtrodden people. Well worth a look.
Note: This book also inspired George Orwell to write Down and Out in Paris and London, an alleged "novel" that documents Orwell's real life experiences working in the kitchens of Paris and on the bum in England in the late 1920s. It's a pretty fabulous piece of writing with a large cult following. You can find it at your local library or your favorite bookseller.
Download The People of the Abyss from Project Gutenberg
In a future post, I'll explore how growing public awareness of the plight of the poor surfaced in the novel in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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