Unique and fascinating account of English working-class life at the turn of the nineteenth century by celebrated historian Carolyn Steedman.

Carolyn Steedman is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Warwick. Her recent publications include Master and Servant: Love and Labour in the English Industrial Age (2007) and Labours Lost: Domestic Service and the Making of Modern England (2009).

Prologue: what are they like?; 1. An introduction, shewing what kind of history this is, what it is like, and what it is not like; 2. Books do furnish a mind; 3. Family and friends; 4. Fears as loyons: drinking and fighting; 5. Sex and the single man; 6. Talking law; 7. Earthly powers; 8. Getting and spending; 9. Knitting and frames; 10. The knocking at the gate: General Ludd; 11. Some conclusions about writing everyday.