| Poverty: A Study of Town Life | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | B. Seebohm Rowntree |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | sociology, Poverty, History |
| Publisher | Macmillian and Co. |
| Publication date | 1901 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback& Paperback) |
| Pages | 437 |
| ISBN | 1861342020 |
| OCLC Number | 318236487 |
Poverty, A Study of Town Life (1901) is the first book by social investigator Seebohm Rowntree and details his investigation of poverty in York and what this indicated about the nature of poverty at the start of the 20th century.
As of 2000, this title was still in print (ISBN 1861343043, 2nd revised edition).
Contents |
The book documents Seebohm's comprehensive survey of the poverty in the City of York, detailing the data obtained, the results of its analysis and drawing conclusions about the extent, reasons for and character of poverty in York at the time.
Introduction
I. General characteristics of the City of York
II. Social and Economic Condition of the Wage-Earning Class in York
III. The Standard of Life
IV. The Poverty Line
V. The Immediate Causes of Poverty in York
VI. Housing
VII. The Relation of Poverty to the Standard of Health
VIII. Family Budgets: A Study in the Expenditure and Diet of Working Classes
IX. Summary and Conclusion
Supplementary Chapter
The study showed that 28% of York's population was living in serious poverty, and that some workers in full time employment were living close to starvation level due to low wages.
Rowntree's findings proved instrumental in changing public perception of the causes of poverty, and are widely regarded as a signficant factor in the emergence of the New Liberalism movement, as well as the subsequent Liberal welfare reforms from 1906 to 1914.
The book had particular influence on the politician and future Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whom, when addressing an audience in Blackpool in 1902 stated that Rowntree's book had "fairly made my hair stand on end", going on to call the findings a "terrible and shocking thing", expressing sympathy with "people who have only the workhouse or prison as avenues to change from their present situation".[1]
The publication received contemporary criticism predominantly from groups such as the Charity Organization Society who advocated the principles of self-help and limited government intervention in regard to poverty. Helen Bosanquet, one of the founders of the COS, and wife of Bernard Bosanquet (philosopher) complained about the accuracy of the findings and explained that Rowntree's poverty line represented "no statistical evidence at all, but is merely a summary of impressions." Charles Loch, the COS secretary, was scathing about "generalizations cloaked in numerical phraseology".