The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Product Description This is a landmark intellectual history of Britain’s working classes from the preindustrial era to the twentieth century. Drawing on workers’ memoirs, social surveys, library registers, and more, Jonathan Rose uncovers which books people read, how they educated themselves, and what they knew. A new preface addresses the continuing relevance of the book amidst the upheavals of the present day. “An astonishing book.”—Ian Sansom, The Guardian “A passionate work of history. . . . Rose has written a work of staggering ambition.”—Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal Winner of the SHARP Book History Prize, the American Philosophical Society’s Jacques Barzun Prize, and the British Council Prize cowinner of the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Prize for 2001; named one of the finest books of 2001 by The Economist. Review Co-winner the Longman-History Today 'Book of the Year' Prize for 2001 Winner of the 2002 Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, Book History Prize Winner of the American Philosophical Society’s Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History for 2001 Winner of the 2002 Humanities Book Award sponsored by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities Longlisted for the 2001 Samuel Johnson Prize About the Author Jonathan Rose was the founding president of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing and a founding coeditor of the journal Book History. He is professor of history at Drew University.