Title: Men, women, and property in England, 1780-1870 : a social and economic history of family strategies amongst the Leeds middle classes /
Authors: Morris, R. J.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Middle class England Leeds History.; Middle class families England Leeds History.; Property Social aspects England Leeds.; Leeds (England) Social conditions; Leeds (England) Social conditions
Abstract: "This is a study of middle-class behaviour and property relations in English towns in Georgian and Victorian Britain. Through the lens of wills, family papers, property deeds, account books and letters, the author offers a new reading of the ways in which middle-class families survived and surmounted the economic difficulties of early industrial society. He argues that these were essentially 'networked' families created and affirmed by a 'gift' network of material goods, finance, services and support, with property very much at the centre of middle-class survival strategies. His approach combines microhistorical studies of individual families with a broader analysis of the national and even international networks within which these families operated. The result is a significant contribution to the history of the middle classes, to economic, business, urban and gender history, and to debates about the place of structural and cultural analysis in historical understanding."--Jacket.
Contents: The world of Joseph Henry Oates : a world of madeira and honey -- In search of the British middle class -- Reading the wills : a window on family and property -- The property cycle -- Strategies and the urban landscape -- Women and things and trusts -- Life after death -- Networks and place -- The economic history of the British middle class, 1816-70.