Low life and moral improvement in mid-Victorian England : Liverpool through the journalism of Hugh Shimmin
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Low life and moral improvement in mid-Victorian England : Liverpool through the journalism of Hugh Shimmin
Leicester University Press, 1991
- : [pbk]
Available at 11 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [244]-250) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Victorian Liverpool - the setting, indeed the hero, of this book - appalled and fascinated social commentators who took the trouble to inspect it. As well as the early sociologists and distinguished overseas visitors who came to wonder (men like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Frederick Olmsted) the city has its own articulate and opinionated reporter - Hugh Shimmin, journalist and newspaper proprietor. This book is an introduction to, commentary upon, and collection of his best journalism. Here is a Victorian "shock city" examined, judged and sentenced by a man with a keen journalistic eye, ferocious nonconformist beliefs, articulate and telling journalistic tales. From the grog shop to the dog fight, from the presentation of scientific experiments to the self-improving middle classes to the courts and alleys of Liverpool, virtually every aspect of Victorian urban life is here. The contemporary journalism is explained, placed into context and analyzed by the two social historians who have edited the book. This should appeal to anyone interested in 19th century urban history, and in the society and economics of life in the Victorian slum.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 Low life - drink and entertainment: an hour in the grog shop
- the free and easy
- the free concert room
- the sparring match
- the dog fight
- carnival at Kirkdale
- the Aintree meeting
- Sunday night on the landing stage
- scientific experiments and rational mirth
- secular and religious gambling. Part 2 Home, family and neighbourhood: the social condition of the people
- an oriel prospect
- Marybone and further on
- driven from home
- smothering children
- a bad servant manufactory
- Jem Burns' new hat
- at Christmas time
- homes of the people, continued
- bagging the Scotchman. Part 3 Moral improvement: housing, health and local government
- from recreation
- the courts and alleys of Liverpool
- introductory
- sermons in stones
- what Mr Stitt might see if he would
- the vagrant sheds
- Mr William Bennett
- Mr John C.Fernihough
- the Cornawallis Street Baths. Part 4 The institutions of improvement: "Our church"
- the model district
- the street boys' concert
- an hour in a co-operative store.
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