The Idea of Poverty: England In the Early Industrial Age

by Gertrude Himmelfarb

Discusses the views of great thinkers from 1750 to 1850--including Adam Smith, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, and Friedrich Engels--toward the condition of the poor in England

Genres: History, Sociology, Economics

595 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Gertrude Himmelfarb, also known as Bea Kristol, was an American historian. She was a leader and conservative interpretations of history and historiography. She wrote extensively on intellectual history, with a focus on Britain and the Victorian era, as well as on contemporary society and culture.

Reviews

[David McGrogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first encounter with Himmelfarb and I was deeply impressed by the breadth and depth of scholarship in this book, which sets for itself the daunting task of accounting for how it was that "poverty" came to be seen as a problem for society or government to attempt to solve, rather than a mere fact of life as it had been thought of prior to the 18th century. There is something almost Foucauldian about the project and I was amused to find American conservatism reflecting French post-structuralism back at itself (or vice versa) in this way. In any case, it's a great book about the history of ideas, and to top it all off you get some of the best literary criticism on Dickens that I know of to boot.

[Jaxson Mahlstadt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I, normal dude, read this book. Anything is possible