Rose - The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE BRITISH WORKING CLASSES

J ONATHAN R OSE is Professor of History at Drew University and founder of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing

Every so often a book appears that challenges the received wisdom on a particular subject, reverses what has been taken for granted and sparks off new ideas that can have consequences for the future of society. Jonathan Roses large volume does just that.John Calder, Scotsman

an astonishing readIan Sansom, Guardian

a book of major significance for British social history and a troubling text for anyone concerned about the destiny of British societyPaul Smith, Times Literary Supplement

Roses book which has the great virtues of clarity, wit and pungent opinion is a brilliant and often moving record of what was achieveda history, in its way, of discovery, of individual lives enhanced by the desire to know more and to know differently it deserves its place alongside Richard Hoggart and Martin Weineralongside the writers who have yielded important new insights into our cultural ancestry and who shed light on ourselvesIan Jack, Daily Telegraph

A superb book much more comprehensive than anything by Raymond Williams or Richard Hoggart, and bears comparison with the best work of Edward Thompson and the late Raphael Samuel. I found the experience of immersion in it to be lastingly movinglike reading the poetry of John Clare, say, or Thomas Gray.Christopher Hitchens, The Times

Mr. Rose has written a work of staggering ambition whose real aim is to rehabilitate the democratic idea that the best of culture is for everyone. [Those] who care about literature, democracy and equality can rejoice, because Jonathan Rose has given them something new and important to read.Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal

It is hard to stress how important this book is. Mr Rose has swept away the lingering guesswork and approximation about the intellectual life of the British working classesThe Economist

a treasure chest a feast of the memories and pleasures of British working-class readersPaul Foot, The Oldie

a brilliantly readable work which exposes the lie behind the patronising notion that works of great literature, art or music are irrelevant to the lives of ordinary peoplePhilip Pullman, Daily Mail

beautifully written, shrewdly perceptive and consistently engagingJohn Gardiner, BBC History Magazine

Copyright 2001 by Jonathan Rose

First published in paperback as a Yale Nota Bene book in 2002

Second edition published in paperback in 2010

Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund.

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.

A Conservative Canon: Cultural Lag in British Working-Class Reading Habits, from Libraries and Culture 33:1, pp. 98104. Copyright by the University of Texas Press. All rights reserved.

Willingly to School: The Working-Class Response to Elementary Education in Britain, 18751918, from Journal of British Studies, 32:2, pp. 11438, published by the University of Chicago Press. 1993 by the North American Conference on British Studies. All rights reserved.

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Set in Adobe Garamond and News Gothic by Northern Phototypesetting Co. Ltd, Bolton

Printed in Great Britain by Hobbs the Printers Ltd, Totton, Hampshire

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:

Rose, Jonathan, 1952

The intellectual life of the British working classes/Jonathan Rose.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780300088861

1 Working classBooks and readingGreat BritainHistory. 2. Working classGreat BritainIntellectual life. 3. Books and readingGreat BritainHistory. 4. Great BritainIntellectual life. I. Title.

Z1039.L3 R67 2001

028.90941dc21 00068562

ISBN: 9780300153651 (pbk)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The paper used for the text pages of this book is FSC certified. FSC (The Forest Stewardship Council) is an international network to promote responsible management of the worlds forests.

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Contents

Scottish Overture I

The Milkmaids Iliad

Knowledge and Power

Literature and Dogma

Conservative Authors and Radical Readers

The Craftsmans Tools

Scottish Overture II

Self-Culture

Proletarian Science

How They Got On

Chekhov in Canning Town

A Common Culture?

Cinderella as Documentary

Audience Participation

Blood, Iron, and Scripture

New Crusoes

Pickwickian Realism

A General Theory of Rubbish

The Peoples Bard

The Hundred Best Books

Everymans Library

Catching Up

A Better-Than-Nothing Institute

Possibilities of Infinitude

Strict but Just

Parental Support

Unmanly Education

Regrets and Discontents

Sheffield 1918

Wagner and Hoot Gibson

Aristotle and Dr. Stopes

Current Affairs

The Right to Language

The Most Unlikely People Buy Books Now

An Underground University

Marx, Jane Eyre, Tarzan

Decline and Fall

The Ruskin Rebellion

The Difficulty about That

What Did the Students Want?

The Reward

Evangelical Materalism

Have You Read Marx?

Unethical Socialism

Stalin Reads Thackeray

Greyfriars Children

Adolescent Propaganda

Marlborough and All That

A Map of the World

Building Jerusalem

To the West

Recessional

The Function of Penny Dreadfuls

Poverty and Indiscrimination

Boys Stories for Girls

The Dog That Was Down

Uses and Gratifications

Restricting Literacy

The Insubordination of the Clerks

The Bridge

By Office Boys for Office Boys

The Better Hole

Cultural Triage

On the Fringe

Where is Bohemia?

Before the Youth Culture

What Went Wrong?

Tables

Favorite Authors of Early Labour MPs, 1906

Holdings in Eighteenth-Century Scottish Libraries

Favorite Novelists of London WEA Students, 1936

Guides to Book Selection, 1944

Party Affiliation

Religion in Which Respondent Was Raised

Fathers Class

School Experience: Did the Respondent Enjoy School?

Rating Teachers: Did the Respondent Like the Teachers?

Respondents Reporting Corporal Punishment

Feelings on Leaving School

Respondents Reporting Parental Interest in Their Education

Cross-tabulating Parental Interest

Attitudes toward Education, 1944

Respondents Expressing Regrets Concerning Education

Name Recognition in Working-Class Sheffield, 1918

Expressed Interest in Radio Programs, 1938

Cultural Interests of Newspaper Readers, 1948

Ability to Identify Cabinet Members, 1942

Reading in Parents Home, 1944

Average Hours Per Week Spent Reading, 1944

Books Read by Senior School Pupils, 1940

Percentage of Female to Male WEA Students, 191328

Hours Per Week Devoted to Reading, London WEA Students, 1936

Acknowledgements