This four volume primary resource collection is the most comprehensive of its kind and includes a multitude of sources that allows the user to chart the squalor, the noise, the conflict, the aspiration and the diversity of the working-class experience up to the outbreak of the First World War.

Table of Contents:
Volume 1: Home and Community Part I: Forming the Urban Working Class [Anon.],'Domestic Manufactures - The Factory System - Migration of Agricultural Labourers to the Manufacturing Districts', Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1837); [A Alison], 'Social and Moral Condition of the Manufacturing Districts in Scotland', Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine (1841), excerpt; [A Alison], 'Causes of the Increase of Crime', Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine (1844); J O Power, 'The Irish in England', Fortnightly Review (1880), excerpts; E G Ravenstein, 'The Laws of Migration', Journal of the Statistical Society of London (1885), excerpts; G B Longstaff, 'Some Lessons of the Census', New Review (1891); E Cannan, 'The Decline of Urban Migration', National Review (1894); J Salter, The East in the West; or Work amongst the Asiatics and Africans in London (1895), excerpts; [Anon.], 'The London Irish', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1901); I A Hourwich, 'The Jewish Labourer in London', Journal of Political Economy (1904) Part II: Housing and Health J Heywood, 'State of Poor Families in Miles Platting, Manchester', Journal of the Statistical Society of London (1838); C B Fripp, 'Report of an Inquiry into the Condition of the Working Classes of the City of Bristol', Journal of the Statistical Society of London (1839); W P Alison, Observations on the Management of the Poor in Scotland, and its Effects on the Health of the Great Towns (1840), excerpts; 'Report of a Committee of the Statistical Society of London, on the State of the Working Classes in the Parishes of St. Margaret and St. John Westminster', Journal of the Statistical Society of London (1840); W P Alison, Observations on the Epidemic Fever of MDCCCXLIII in Scotland and its Connection with the Destitute Condition of the Poor (1844), excerpts; W H Duncan, On the Physical Causes of the High Rate of Mortality in Liverpool (1843), excerpts; G S Kenrick, 'Statistics of Merthyr Tydvil', Journal of the Statistical Society of London (1846); P Greg, 'Homes of the London Workmen', Macmillan's Magazine (1862); [A Wood], Report on the Condition of the Poorer Classes of Edinburgh and of their Dwellings, Neighbourhoods, and Families (1868), excerpt; A Mearns, Light and Shade: Pictures of London Life (1885), excerpts; M Jeune, 'The Homes of the Poor', Fortnightly Review (1890); A Newsholme, 'The Vital Statistics of Peabody Buildings and Other Artisans' and Labourers' Block Dwellings', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1891), excerpt; [F L Robertson], 'The Social Condition of the Poor in Glasgow', Scottish Review (1892), excerpts; G Haw, 'No Room to Live': The Plaint of Overcrowded London (1899), excerpts; P Fyfe, Back Lands and their Inhabitants (1901), excerpts; L Phillimore, 'The Overcrowding of London', Monthly Review (1901) Part III: The Working-Class Family J Finch, Jr, Statistics of Vauxhall Ward, Liverpool: Shewing the Actual Condition of More than Five Thousand Families (1842), excerpts; 'Good Words Commissioner', 'The Distress in South Wales', Good Words (1878); H E Acraman Coate, 'Some Phases of Poor Life', Eastward Ho (1885); W Cudworth, Condition of the Industrial Classes of Bradford and District (1887), excerpts; 'The Riverside Visitor' [T Wright], The Pinch of Poverty: Sufferings and Heroism of the London Poor (1892), excerpts; A Heather-Bigg, 'The Wife's Contribution to the Family Income', Economic Journal (1894); 'Economic Club', Family Budgets, being the Income and Expenses of Twenty-Eight British Households, 1891-1894 (1896), excerpts; S Webb, The Decline in the Birth Rate (1907), excerpts; C V Butler, Social Conditions in Oxford (1912) excerpt Volume 2: Work Part I: Working Conditions F Place, Hand Loom Weavers and Factory Workers: A Letter to James Turner, Cotton Spinner (1835); 'A Manchester Operative' [J Leach], Stubborn Facts from the Factories (1844), excerpt; W Jones, 'Unhealthy Employments', New Monthly Magazine (1856); [Anon.],'Birmingham Factory Children', Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art (1865); J G Eccarius, The Hours of Labour (1872), excerpts; G Phillips Bevan, Industrial Classes and Industrial Statistics (1876), excerpts; R Rowe, How Our Working People Live (1882), excerpts; British Weekly Commissioners, Toilers in London; or, Inquiries Concerning Female Labour in the Metropolis (1889), excerpts; J T Arlidge, The Hygiene, Diseases and Mortality of Occupations (1892), excerpts; F Merttens, 'The Hours and Cost of Labour in the Cotton Industry at Home and Abroad,' Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society (1893-4), excerpts; M H Irwin, 'The Problem of Home Work', Westminster Review (1897); B S Knollys, 'A Factory Girl's Day', Belgravia: A London Magazine (1897); E F Hogg, 'The Fur-Pullers of South London', Nineteenth Century (1897); H J Tennant, 'Dangerous Trades', Fortnightly Review (1899); A Russell, 'Four Days in a Factory', Contemporary Review (1903); C Smith, 'Dangerous Trades', Economic Review (1905); C V Butler, Social Conditions in Oxford (1912), excerpts Part II: Skill, Gender and Age Distinctions 'C North' [J Wilson], 'The Factory System', Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine (1833), excerpts; 'D S' [T Southwood Smith], 'The Factories', London and Westminster Review (1836), excerpt; [J D Milne], Industrial and Social Position of Women in the Middle and Lower Ranks (1857), excerpts; [Anon.], 'The Employment of Females', Tait's Edinburgh Magazine (1860); G Howell, 'Trades Unions, Apprentices, and Technical Education', Contemporary Review (1877), excerpts; T Barnardo, A City Waif: How I Fished for and Caught Her (1883), excerpts; E F S Dilke, 'The Industrial Position of Women', Fortnightly Review (1893); F Hird, The Cry of the Children: An Exposure of the Industries in which British Children are Iniquitously Employed (1898), excerpts; N Adler, 'Child Workers and Wage-Earners', Journal of the Royal Society of the Arts (1908); R A Bray, 'The Apprenticeship Question', Economic Journal (1909) Part III: Worker Organization '|A Journeyman Bootmaker', An Address to the Members of Trade Unions and to the Working Classes Generally (1833), excerpts; H Alexander, The Rights of Labour Defended, or, The Trial of the Glasgow Cotton Spinners (1837), excerpts; J Boyle, 'An Account of Strikes in the Potteries, in the Years 1834 and 1836', Journal of the Statistical Society of London (1838); G Potter, 'The Trade Societies of England, from the Workman's Point of View', Contemporary Review (1870), excerpts; [Anon.], 'The Growth of a Trades Union', North British Review (1870), excerpt; J Burnett, Nine Hours' Movement: A History of the Engineers' Strike in Newcastle and Gateshead (1872), excerpts; G Howell, 'Trade-Unions: Their Nature, Character, and Work', Fraser's Magazine (1879); L T Hobhouse, 'Conflicts of Capital and Labour', Economic Review (1891); W Mather, 'Labour and the Hours of Labour: The Industrial Problem of the Day', Contemporary Review (1892), excerpts Volume 3: Culture Part I: Traditional Popular Culture 'A Country Clergyman', 'Country Wakes', British Magazine (1837); [Anon.], 'Country Wakes', Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1837); [Anon.], 'Report Delivered to the Society for the Suppression of Sunday Wakes', British Magazine (1839); [Anon.], 'Derby Foot-Ball, on Shrove-Tuesday', London Saturday Journal (1840); [Anon.], 'The Lancashire Wakes', Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (1842); R J Denman, 'Stepney Fair', Ainsworth's Magazine (1852); [Anon.], 'Village Feasts and Wakes', London Review of Politics, Society, Literature, Art, and Science (1866); R H Horne, 'The Burlesque and the Beautiful', Contemporary Review (1871), excerpt; M G Watkins, 'A Devonshire Merry-Making', Belgravia: A London Magazine (1883); A Burton, Rush-Bearing: An Account of the Old Custom of Strewing Rushes; Carrying Rushes to Church; the Rush-Cart; Garlands in Churches; Morris-Dancers; the Wakes; the Rush (1891), excerpt Part II: Working-Class Leisure and Its Critics Mrs [C A] White, 'Saturday Night in London', Ainsworth's Magazine (1846); J Teare, On the Influence of Rational and Elevating Amusements upon the Working Classes, Artizans' Prize Essays (1849), excerpts; W Logan, The Moral Statistics of Glasgow (1849), excerpts; W G Reid, 'Street-Loungers and Street-Lounging', Working Man's Friend and Family Instructor (1850); W H Macfarlane, 'Mechanics' Institutions and their Tendencies', Working Man's Friend and Family Instructor (1850); [Anon.], Aspects of the Working Classes. No. V Drinking Customs (1851); [Anon.], 'Popular Amusements in Large Cities', Scottish Review (1861); [Anon.], 'One-Sided Law', Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts (1854); [Anon.], 'Popular Amusements', London Review and Weekly Journal of Politics, Literature, Art, and Society (1860); [Anon.], 'A Lancashire Holiday', Quiver (1864); 'The Journeyman Engineer' [T Wright], 'Bill Banks's Day Out', Savage Club Papers (1868); J Amos, Nine Years in Kent Street: Or Intelligence from a Missionary Station in London (1870), excerpt; M W Moggridge, Public Houses for the People; a Plea for Improved Taverns (1879); C Hill, Would the Sunday Opening of Museums, Libraries, and Places of Amusement Increase or Diminish Sunday Drinking? (1879); [National Sunday League], A Few Plain Reasons for the Sunday Opening of the National Museums, Libraries and Art Galleries (1890); F Low, 'Street Games', Strand Magazine (1891); E Ensor, 'The Football Madness', Contemporary Review (1898); E Morley, 'Hooliganism and Working Boys' Clubs', Westminster Review (1901); E Pugh, 'Some London Street Amusements', in G Sims (ed.), Living London (1903); H F Abell, 'The Football Fever', Macmillan's Magazine (1904); C Russell, Manchester Boys: Sketches of Manchester Lads at Work and Play (1905), excerpts Part III: Associational Life Regulations of the Glasgow Power-Loom Tenters' Friendly Society (1830); J Garwood and J Robinson, An Appeal for the London City Mission (1846); R Buchanan, The Spiritual Destitution of the Masses in Glasgow (1851), excerpts; H Fawcett, 'Co-Operative Societies: their Social and Economical Aspects', Macmillan's Magazine (1860); [C Mackay], 'Co-Operative Societies', Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine (1867); W Gilbert, 'The Gin-Palace and the Working Man's Club', Good Words (1872); C Hardwick, The History, Present Position, and Social Importance of Friendly Societies (1893), excerpts; G Haw (ed.), Christianity and the Working Classes (1906), excerpt; M Loane, The Queen's Poor: Life as They Find It in Town and Country (1910), excerpt Volume 4: Power Part I: Radical and Party Politics [F Place and W Lovett], The People's Charter and National Petition (1839); [Anon.], 'The Chartist Riots in South Wales', Examiner (1839); 'A Tory Freeholder', An Appeal to Lord John Russell on Behalf of the Working Population by a Tory Freeholder (1848); 'A Chartist', To the Oppressed and Mystified People of Great Britain ([c.1849]); G J Harney, 'To the Working Classes', Democratic Review (1849); W A Abram, 'Social Condition and Political Prospects of the Lancashire Workman,' Fortnightly Review (1868); [Anon.],'Conservative Demonstration at the Crystal Palace. Speech of Mr. Disraeli', Supplement to Berrow's Worcester Journal (1872); G Potter, The Conservative Working Man and the Liberal Working Man (1878); T Burt, 'Working Men and War', Fortnightly Review (1882); J Keir Hardie, 'The Labour Party', New Review (1892); J Keir Hardie, 'The Independent Labour Party', Nineteenth Century (1895); J Chamberlain, 'Want of Employment and the Development of Free Markets', in Foreign and Colonial Speeches (1897) Part II: The Working Class and the Authorities S Roberts, The Pauper's Advocate: A Cry from the Brink of the Grave against the New Poor Law (1841), excerpts; [Anon.], 'The Criminality of the Metropolis', Ragged School Union Magazine (1850); F Power Cobbe, 'Workhouse Sketches', Macmillan's Magazine (1861); T W Saunders, Metropolitan Police Court Jottings (1882), excerpts; J Greenwood, 'The Police Constable' and 'Able-Bodied Paupers', in The Prisoner in the Dock: My Four Years' Daily Experiences in the London Police Courts (1902); J T Biggs, Leicester: Sanitation versus Vaccination (1912), excerpt; A Martin, 'The Mother and Social Reform, Part II', Nineteenth Century and After (1913) Part III: Power and Authority in Families and Communities B Brierley, Tales and Sketches of Lancashire Life (1866), excerpt; T W Saunders, Metropolitan Police Court Jottings (1882), excerpt; M M Blake, 'Are Women Protected?', Westminster Review (1892); M S Crawford, 'Maltreatment of Wives', Westminster Review (1893); J Greenwood, 'Advice Gratis', in The Prisoner in the Dock: My Four Years' Daily Experiences in the London Police Courts (1902); M Loane, The Queen's Poor: Life as They Find It in Town and Country (1910), excerpt; A Martin, 'The Mother and Social Reform, Part I', Nineteenth Century and After (1913)