Fragments of fury? Lunacy, agency, and contestation in the Great Yarmouth workhouse, 1890s–1900s

King, S. A. and Jones, P. (2020) Fragments of fury? Lunacy, agency, and contestation in the Great Yarmouth workhouse, 1890s–1900s. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 51(2), pp. 235-265. (doi: 10.1162/jinh_a_01556)

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Abstract

A methodological and philosophical focus on scandals has turned the workhouse that stands at the heart of popular and historiographical understandings of the English and Welsh New Poor Law (1834–1929) into a dark place of confinement and harsh treatment that the poor were largely powerless to resist. Yet viewed through the lens of interdisciplinary methods not often applied to the history of welfare—in particular, historical sociolinguistics and material-culture analysis—the pauper letters and “stitched” texts that have emerged from large-scale research projects reveal that inmates’ experience in the workhouse were not as dire, and their voices not as suppressed, as once supposed.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Jones, Dr Peter
Authors: King, S. A., and Jones, P.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
Journal Name:Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Publisher:MIT Press
ISSN:0022-1953
ISSN (Online):1530-9169

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