Ginn Culture, Philanthropy and the Poor in Late-Victorian London

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-1-351-73280-2
Verlag: Taylor & Francis
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 320 Seiten

Reihe: Perspectives in Economic and Social History

The Late-Victorian cultural mission to London’s slums was a peculiar effort towards social reform that today is largely forgotten or misunderstood. The philanthropy of middle and upper-class social workers saw hundreds of art exhibitions, concerts of fine music, evening lectures, clubs and socials, debates and excursions mounted for the benefit of impoverished and working-class Londoners. Ginn’s vivid and provocative book captures many of these in detail for the first time.

In refreshing our understanding of this obscure but eloquent activism, Ginn approaches cultural philanthropy not simply as a project of class self-interest, nor as fanciful ‘missionary aestheticism.’ Rather, he shows how liberal aspirations towards adult education and civic community can be traced in a number of centres of moralising voluntary effort. Concentrating on Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel, the People’s Palace in Mile End, Red Cross Hall in Southwark and the Bermondsey Settlement, the discussion identifies the common impulses animating practical reformers across these settings.

Drawing on new primary research to clarify reformers’ underlying intentions and strategies, Ginn shows how these were shaped by a distinctive diagnosis of urban deprivation and anomie. In rebutting the common view that cultural philanthropy was a crudely paternalistic attempt to impose ‘rational recreation’ on the poor, this volume explores its sources in a liberal-minded social idealism common to both religious and secular conceptions of social welfare in this period. Culture, Philanthropy and the Poor in Late-Victorian London appeals to students and researchers of Victorian culture, moral reform, urbanism, adult education and philanthropy, who will be fascinated by this underrated but lively aspect of the period’s social activism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ginn, Geoffrey A. C.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: A Good Young Man in a Shiny Top Hat

Chapter 2: Sources and Explanations

Chapter 3: Social Work, Sweetness and Light

Chapter 4: One by One in Whitechapel

Chapter 5: An Impossible Story in Mile End

Chapter 6: Social Duty in South London

Chapter 7: Places, Spaces, Audiences

Chapter 8: Uniting Sentiment, Common Feeling

Chapter 9: The Gift of Culture, Properly Understood

Additional Bibliography

Archives and Collections

Contemporary Published Sources

Memoirs and Reminiscences

Periodical Articles and Essays

Monographs

Articles, Essays and Book Chapters

Über Autor(innen)

Geoffrey A. C. Ginn teaches modern British history and heritage studies at the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on urban history, historical museology and public history, with particular interests in the Victorians, colonial cities, the history of religion, and public culture.