The experience of urban poverty, 1723-82: Parish, charity and credit

This comparative study of urban poverty is the first to chart the irregular pulse of poverty’s encounters with officialdom. It exploits an unusual methodology to secure new perspectives from familiar sources.

The highly localised characteristics of the welfare economy generated a peculiarly urban environment for the poor. Separate chapters examine the parameters of workhouse life when the preconceptions of contemporaries have been stripped away; the reach of institutional charities such as ...