A review by wealhtheow
The Edwardians: The Remaking Of British Society by Paul Thompson

4.0

Really fantastic historical sociology. Thompson conducted a huge national interview study of family, work and community life before 1918, then wrote a readable, comprehensive book about his realizations. ex:"The fate of the old [often ending up in institutions] might be seen as one consequence of the more general decline of traditional authority in the family and society. This would be mistaken. The old were chronically poor and underprivileged in 1900, and the help which they receive from both kith and from the state has actually increased. What is more relevant is that the factors which have progressively lifted the majority of the population above the level of absolute poverty, reducing the need of most families fro the exchange of help with neighbours and making possible a home-centered social and leisure life, have separated the nuclear family of parents and children from the experience of less self-sufficient groups. Not only the old, but also young unmarried adults, who equally depend upon the wider society rather than the private family, have been left increasingly isolated...The twentieth century has seen a strengthening rather than a disintegration of the family in Britain, but it is a strengthening which has brought very unequal benefits."