Who Were The Real Oliver Twists?: Childhood Poverty in Victorian London

Nineteenth century laws and social institutions entirely failed to protect children born to poor and unstable families in Victorian London and other English cities.

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist exposed a brutal but commonplace system of child exploitation to Victorian readers. Conditions in workhouses, factories, and child criminal gangs posed lethal and daily hazards to children born to poverty. Several much—needed reforms took place in the aftermath of Oliver Twist’s publication. But what...