Wanting and Having

In this thought-provoking new study, Peter Gurney demonstrates the centrality of consumption to any understanding of British popular politics in the middle third of the nineteenth century. Such an account is timely, and Gurney is quick to point out the contemporary resonance and relevance of these debates, which revolve around the tensions between the market and ideas of democracy, and people as citizens and consumers. Using consumption as an analytical tool enables Gurney to provide fresh perspectives on well-studied topics such as Chartism, the Anti-Corn Law League and the New Poor Law. For example, in Chapter Three, Gurney argues that the stringencies of the 1834 New Poor Law, particularly in terms of the meagre food rations given to paupers in workhouses, should be seen as an attempt to ratchet down the social norm of consumption. That is, the New Poor Law was intended to lower the minimum level of food that people were entitled to and willing to accept in order to incentivise them to work harder

Consumerism · Consumption (sociology · Democracy · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · American History and Culture · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law