Worktown: The Astonishing Story of the Project that launched Mass Observation - Hardcover

David Hall:

3.57

53 ratings by Goodreads

9780297871682: Worktown: The Astonishing Story of the Project that launched Mass Observation

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297871684 ISBN 13: 9780297871682

Publisher: London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015., 2015

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During the late 1930s, the Lancashire cotton town of Bolton (Worktown) became the subject of a groundbreaking social experiment: the anthropological fieldwork of Tom Harrisson that was to develop into Mass-Observation. David Hall tells the story of Mass-Observations emergence from the social, intellectual and political climate of the 1930s; he looks at how Harrisson, his co-founders and his co-workers crossed the rigid class divide in pre-war Britain; and he assesses the enduring value of Mass Observations anthropology of ourselves.

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About the Author:

David Hall is a bestselling writer and TV producer. He has produced landmark documentaries and factual series for the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, Discovery, the History Channel and the Travel Channel. He is the author of MANCHESTER'S FINEST, an account of life in Manchester in the aftermath of the deaths of the Busby Babes in the Munich air disaster, and WORKING LIVES, which captures the forgotten voices of Britain's post-war working class.

Review:

David Hall charts the first phase of the groundbreaking Mass-Observation project that examined working class life in Bolton... Including evocative photographs and stories from residents, the author takes us on a journey back to the 1930s and introduces us to life at street level. This fascinating and readable book throws light on the lives of many of our pre-WW2 relatives. -- Amanda Randall * FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE * Highly readable, anecdote-rich history -- Kevin Jackson * GUARDIAN * Drawing on vivid reports, photographs and first-hand sources (very little of which has ever been previously published) David Hall relates the extraordinary story of this eccentric and short lived but hugely influential project. He creates a detailed and fascinating portrait of a lost chapter of British social history and of the life of Bolton before the world would change forever. The photographs of Humphrey Spender are used in this fascinating book (these, of course are held by Bolton's Library and Museum Services) and they help to show how mass observation (from 1937 to the early 1950s as well as new material collected continuously since 1981) can tell us so much about our town and its people -- Gail McBain * THE BOLTON NEWS * lively and accessible -- Peter Clarke * FINANCIAL TIMES * Hall's depiction of Harrisson's eccentricities is enthralling... there is much to enjoy - and plenty of contemporary resonance in an age when internet giants are collecting information about our tastes and habits -- Francis Wheen * THE MAIL ON SUNDAY * The book details how 90 observers (usually upper-class Oxbridge types), recorded minute details of everyday life, and how [Tom Harrisson's] experiment grew into the wider Mass Observation study. The social history is fascinating and class issues run throughout the book. A timely, readable reminder that while everything changes, everything also stays the same * GLASGOW HERALD * A great read -- Oscar Quine * THE INDEPENDENT *

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