Objects of Poverty - by Joseph Harley & Vicky Holmes (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines the history of poverty in Britain by analysing objects crafted, owned, used and experienced by those living in poverty.

Book Synopsis

Objects of Poverty is the first volume dedicated to analysing the material culture of poverty in British history from 1700 to the present. The book examines the history of poverty through the objects 'owned' by the poor and those crafted, repurposed or simply encountered by them, offering critical new insights into the experience of being impoverished.
This collection brings together leading and emerging scholars who draw on a wide array of 'objects of poverty' from those that survive today, ranging from dolls to whistles to textile samples, to those that have long since gone and now only exist in visual and written sources. The contributors trace the importance of materiality in eighteenth-century and modern life, covering objects connected to sustenance, home, the makeshift, childhood, animals, money, workhouses, and injury and death. In its 23 chapters, along with some 77 illustrations, the book provides a detailed exploration of the history of poverty in Britain. Each of the chapters are based on original research and make a new contribution to the literature. This book will be fascinating reading for history enthusiasts to students to established academics across multiple disciplines.

Review Quotes

The origins of material culture history lie in the study of beautiful and often expensive objects most usually found in museum collections. In the last several decades the objects of middling or more prosperous laboring households have become a subject of sustained historical interest. Finally, we now have a volume on a wide range of material objects associated with the very poor and institutionalized. Joseph Harley and Vicky Holmes have opened a welcome new chapter in our understanding of the material lives of early modern and modern Britons.
Anne McCants, Professor of History, MIT, USA

About the Author

Joseph Harley is a Senior Lecturer in History at Anglia Ruskin University, UK.
Vicky Holmes is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Notre Dame London, The University of Notre Dame (USA) in England.