Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
My library | Help | Advanced Book Search | Web History | Sign in

Books

The intellectual life of the British working classes

Front Cover
12 Reviews
Yale University _Press, 2002 - History - 534 pages
Which books did the British working classes read--and how did they read them? How did they respond to canonical authors, penny dreadfuls, classical music, school stories, Shakespeare, Marx, Hollywood movies, imperialist propaganda, the Bible, the BBC, the Bloomsbury Group? What was the quality of their classroom education? How did they educate themselves? What was their level of cultural literacy: how much did they know about politics, science, history, philosophy, poetry, and sexuality? Who were the proletarian intellectuals, and why did they pursue the life of the mind? These intriguing questions, which until recently historians considered unanswerable, are addressed in this book. Using innovative research techniques and a vast range of unexpected sources, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes tracks the rise and decline of the British autodidact from the pre-industrial era to the twentieth century. It offers a new method for cultural historians--an "audience history" that recovers the responses of readers, students, theatergoers, filmgoers, and radio listeners. Jonathan Rose provides an intellectual history of people who were not expected to think for themselves, told from their perspective. He draws on workers' memoirs, oral history, social surveys, opinion polls, school records, library registers, and newspapers. Through its novel and challenging approach to literary history, the book gains access to politics, ideology, popular culture, and social relationships across two centuries of British working-class experience.

What people are saying - Write a review

User ratings

5 stars
5
4 stars
5
3 stars
0
2 stars
0
1 star
0

Review: The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

User Review  - Abailart - Goodreads

Meticulously research, this provides a reservoir of source material to follow up. The highly readable themes cohere nicely. There are revelations of our near working class history in every chapter ... Read full review

Review: The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

User Review  - Chas Bayfield - Goodreads

THis is an inspirational book about poor people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps; people who didn't leave it to fate or governments to help them along but who took matters into their own ... Read full review

All 12 reviews »

Related books

Book History
Book History, Volume 1
Ezra Greenspan
Limited preview - 1998
“The” Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation
“The” Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation
Jonathan Rose
No preview available - 2001
The Politics of Working-Class Education in Britain, 1830-50
The Politics of Working-Class Education in Britain, 1830-50
Denis G. Paz
Limited preview - 1980
All related books »

Other editions - View all

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Jonathan Rose
Snippet view - 2010
“The” Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
“The” Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Jonathan Rose
No preview available - 2001

References to this book

From other books

Towards Strategic Staff Development in Higher Education
Towards Strategic Staff Development in Higher Education
Paul Blackmore
Limited preview - 2003
Violent Night: Urban Leisure and Contemporary Culture
Violent Night: Urban Leisure and Contemporary Culture

Limited preview - 2006
All Book Search results »

From Google Scholar

From Class to Culture 1
Michael Hechter - 2004 - American Journal of Sociology
The unacknowledged convergence of open source, open access, and ...
John Willinsky - 2005
Spiritual Capital: Theorizing Religion with Bourdieu against Bourdieu
Bradford Verter - 2003 - Sociological Theory
Arts and Humanities in Higher
Ben Knights - Arts and Humanities in Higher Education
All Scholar search results »

References from web pages

rp (Rodney Paul) Sturges - The Intellectual Life of the British ...
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes. By Jonathan Rose. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. ix, 534 pp. $39.95. ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ libraries_and_culture/ v037/ 37.4sturges.html

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes@Everything2.com
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes ... The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes Jonathan Rose Yale University Press, 2002 ...
everything2.com/ e2node/ The%2520Intellectual%2520Life%2520of%2520the%2520British%2520Working%2520Classes

Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, The | Canadian ...
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, by Jonathan Rose. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2001. ix, 534 pp. $39.95 us (cloth). ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_qa3686/ is_200304/ ai_n9213528

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes.(Book
by Jonathan Rose. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001 Pp. ix + 534. $39.95 cloth. A more auspicious birth for a text can hardly be imag
www.encyclopedia.com/ doc/ 1G1-102981648.html

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes - Rose ...
Using innovative research techniques and a vast range of unexpected sources, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes tracks the rise and ...
yalepress.yale.edu/ yupbooks/ book.asp?isbn=9780300088861

ingentaconnect The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes. Author: Macintyre S.1. Source: English Historical Review, Volume 117, Number 471, April 2002 , pp. ...
www.ingentaconnect.com/ content/ oup/ enghis/ 2002/ 00000117/ 00000471/ art00421;jsessionid=3inobc3wnoogg.alexandra?format=...

Times Higher Education - Battles of bluecollar scholar
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes. Work on the history of the British working class has over the past generation moved from political and ...
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/ story.asp?storyCode=174040& sectioncode=22

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.3 | The ...
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2001. Pp. ix, 534. $50.00. Jonathan Rose asks what working-class ...
www.historycooperative.org/ journals/ ahr/ 107.3/ br_104.html

British Academy | News - Enlightenment faces Denial on Shortlist ...
Jonathan Rose The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (Yale University Press). The shortlist of six books was chosen by a five-strong judging ...
www.britac.ac.uk/ news/ release.asp?NewsID=93

Information for Social Change Journal (ISC)
In his landmark book, The Intellectual life of the British Working Classes , Jonathan Rose traces the rise and decline of the British autodidact from the ...
libr.org/ isc/ articles/ 20-Pateman-1.html

About the author (2002)

Rose is the founder and past president of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The intellectual life of the British working classes
TitleThe intellectual life of the British working classes
Yale Nota Bene book
Yale Nota Bene
AuthorJonathan Rose
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherYale University _Press, 2002
ISBN0300098081, 9780300098082
Length534 pages
Subjects › 

History / General
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan