Fragments of Fury? Lunacy, Agency, and Contestation in the Great Yarmouth Workhouse, 1890s-1900s

Bibliographic Data

ID4009643
AuthorsSteven A King (0000-0002-9152-9190, National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death), Peter Jones (0000-0001-5089-4143, Redress)
Year2020
Volume51
Issue2
Pages235-265
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1953 • E-ISSN: 1530-9169
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/jinh_a_01556
OpenAlexW3015145827
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

A methodological and philosophical focus on scandals has turned the workhouse that stands at the heart of popular and historiographical understandings of the English and Welsh New Poor Law (1834-1929) into a dark place of confinement and harsh treatment that the poor were largely powerless to resist. Yet viewed through the lens of interdisciplinary methods not often applied to the history of welfare-in particular, historical sociolinguistics and material-culture analysis-the pauper letters and "stitched" texts that have emerged from large-scale research projects reveal that inmates' experience in the workhouse were not as dire, and their voices not as suppressed, as once supposed

Agency (philosophy) · Archaeology · Historiography · Poorhouse · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History

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