David Owens - A History of the English Working Class 1346 - 1914

I've recently read this book and it gives an excellent overview of the history of the working class in England. It's a fairly small tome, not as in-depth as E.P. Thompson's mammouth work, obviously, but as it covers a wider time-period, it addresses the whole histroy of England's workers, not just the late 18th and early 19th centuries which Thompson does.

The author is a member of a singular group in the English nationalist movement, The English Radical Alliance, who promote Distributism. Anyway, the book is a definite must-read for anyone who is interested in the working class of England, or indeed working class history in general.

It can be ordered here:

http://www.englishradicals.com/publications.html

This is the blurb about the book from that website:

A History of the English Working Class 1346 - 1914

by David Owens

The English working class have often been viewed as a product of the industrial revolution; the people of the 'Factory Age' as it were.

This study takes a different view and shows the existence and activity of a 'working class' from the medieval period onwards. What was their reaction to war, plague and religious upheaval? How did they cope with an agricultural and social revolution that changed a way of life that had existed for thousands of years? What were the attitudes of those in authority towards the emerging masses of working people, their children and their social problems?

In this book you will see how the working class played their part in some of the most eventful periods of English history and finally claimed their part as equals in a modern world.

This book is a must for all English radicals and those interested in our history.

Price £6 (inc P&P)

Red & White wrote:I've recently read this book and it gives an excellent overview of the history of the working class in England. It's a fairly small tome, not as in-depth as E.P. Thompson's mammouth work, obviously, but as it covers a wider time-period, it addresses the whole histroy of England's workers, not just the late 18th and early 19th centuries which Thompson does.

The author is a member of a singular group in the English nationalist movement, The English Radical Alliance, who promote Distributism. Anyway, the book is a definite must-read for anyone who is interested in the working class of England, or indeed working class history in general.

It can be ordered here:

http://www.englishradicals.com/publications.html

This is the blurb about the book from that website:

A History of the English Working Class 1346 - 1914

by David Owens

The English working class have often been viewed as a product of the industrial revolution; the people of the 'Factory Age' as it were.

This study takes a different view and shows the existence and activity of a 'working class' from the medieval period onwards. What was their reaction to war, plague and religious upheaval? How did they cope with an agricultural and social revolution that changed a way of life that had existed for thousands of years? What were the attitudes of those in authority towards the emerging masses of working people, their children and their social problems?

In this book you will see how the working class played their part in some of the most eventful periods of English history and finally claimed their part as equals in a modern world.

This book is a must for all English radicals and those interested in our history.

Price £6 (inc P&P)

Ill certainly take a look at this when I get a chance
Cheers

Just looking through The ERA website some intresting ideas,are you a member I only ask as im after an idea of where the group lies on folk issues.



I see abit of sea green on there website so I take it they have some Leveller sympathy.

TheocWulf wrote:Just looking through The ERA website some intresting ideas,are you a member I only ask as im after an idea of where the group lies on folk issues.

I see abit of sea green on there website so I take it they have some Leveller sympathy.

No, I'm not a member. I came across their website some time ago and as you say, there's some interesting stuff there, especially the historical stuff there, which as a big history buff, I enjoyed.

From what I gathered from the website, they're anti-capitalist but also anti-socialist, prefering distributism. And they seem to be civic-nationalists, boardering on ethno-nationalists, but not quite brave enough to go that extra mile in case they get called racist!

Today was the first time I'd visited their website for yonks to get the link for the David Owens book and it seems that they've now deregistered as a political party. And yes, well spotted, the sea green was indeed to do with the Levellers! They say that they want to carry on the English radical tradition of the Levellers, Wat Tyler, Tolpuddle Martyers, the Chartists etc.

As soon as I posted about the David Owens book, I realized that I should have mentioned another book about the British working class and British radicalism that I read recently. It's called "A Radical History of Britain" by Edward Vallance. It covers pretty much the same period as the Owens book, but it goes into all the events in much more detail.

[quote="Red & White"]

TheocWulf wrote:Just looking through The ERA website some intresting ideas,are you a member I only ask as im after an idea of where the group lies on folk issues.

I see abit of sea green on there website so I take it they have some Leveller sympathy.

No, I'm not a member. I came across their website some time ago and as you say, there's some interesting stuff there, especially the historical stuff there, which as a big history buff, I enjoyed.

From what I gathered from the website, they're anti-capitalist but also anti-socialist, prefering distributism. And they seem to be civic-nationalists, boardering on ethno-nationalists, but not quite brave enough to go that extra mile in case they get called racist!

Today was the first time I'd visited their website for yonks to get the link for the David Owens book and it seems that they've now deregistered as a political party. And yes, well spotted, the sea green was indeed to do with the Levellers! They say that they want to carry on the English radical tradition of the Levellers, Wat Tyler, Tolpuddle Martyers, the Chartists etc.

As soon as I posted about the David Owens book, I realized that I should have mentioned another book about the British working class and British radicalism that I read recently. It's called "A Radical History of Britain" by Edward Vallance. It covers pretty much the same period as the Owens book, but it goes into all the events in much more detail.

Ill get Vallances book then.

Yea thats what is was getting civic nationalists with ethno tendancys.I like it where the say we can form Anglo Saxon communities so some can achive seperateness like its that easy to spring up new communities.Hopefully there dont take the christianity thing to seriouse aswell.I do however have a lot of time for there direct democracy and regionalism policys.

All in all a nice sentiment and some good points and issue raised on there website if they were socialists id be very intrested in this groups

TheocWulf wrote:Ill get Vallances book then.

If you've got the inclination, and the dosh obviously, I'd seriously suggest getting both.

The Vallance book looks at specific radical events in British history; The Magna Carta, Kett's Rebellion, the Peasents' Revolt, the Levellers, the Chartists, the Suffragettes etc. in quite a lot of detail.

These subjects are interesting in themselves, obviously, but the shorter book by Owens not only looks at these events as well, but looks at them from a specifically working class perspective, which Vallance doesn't do. Owens' book looks a lot more into the lives of normal working Englishmen at various times in history, and this is what I found particually interesting. It looks at the overall history of working class English people more than Vallance's book.

I'd say that they are complementary but if you're only going to get one, I'd say get the Owens book. It's a lot shorter but is more about the working class specifically than the other one.