A culture of consolation? Rethinking politics in working-class London, 1870–1914*

Abstract

Abstract In their communities, and in interactions with authorities and profit-seekers, residents of late Victorian London working-class districts struggled forcefully over the distribution of power, resources and prestige. They battled one another, in households and neighbourhoods, enforcing hierarchies and unequal access to resources. Philanthropists met hostile, manipulative and assertive poor people. Working-class Londoners resisted unwelcome state incursions and exploited government resources toward their own ends. They also fought employers and landlords over resources and power. Though their involvement in unions and socialist politics was uneven, these working-class Londoners participated actively in a pervasive politics of everyday life.