Labour's Apprentices: Working-Class Lads in Late Victorian and Edwardian England - Softcover

Childs, Michael J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773512896 ISBN 13: 9780773512894

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Childs discusses working-class family life and considers the changes that becoming a wage earner and a contributor to the family economy made to a youth's status within the home. He explores the significance of publicly provided education for the working class and analyses the labour market for young males, focusing on apprenticeship, future job prospects, trade unions, and wage levels. Childs investigates the patterns of labour available to boys at that time, including street selling, half-time labour, and apprenticed versus "free" labour, arguing that these were major factors in the creation of a semi-skilled adult work force. Turning to leisure activities among working-class youths, Childs looks at street culture, commercial entertainments, and youth groups and movements and finds that each influenced the emergence of a more cohesive and class-conscious working class.

About this title

About the Authors

Michael J. Childs is an associate professor in the Department of History, Bishop's University.

From the Back Cover

The three decades before the First World War witnessed significant changes in the working life, home life and social life of adolescent English males. In Labour's Apprentices, Michael Childs suggests that the study of such age-specific experiences provides vital clues to the evolving structure and fortunes of the working class as a whole and helps to explain subsequent development in English history. Beginning with home life, Childs discusses the life cycle of the working-class family and considers the changes that becoming a wage-earner and a contributor to the family economy made to a youth's status. He explores the significance of publicly provided education for the working class and analyses the labour market for young males, focusing on the role of apprenticeship, the impact of different types of labour on future job prospects, the activities of trade unions, and wage levels. Childs makes a detailed investigation of the patterns of labour available to boys at that time, including street selling, half-time labour, and apprenticed labour versus "free" labour. He argues that such changes were a major factor in the creation of a semi-skilled adult workforce. Childs then examines the choices that working-class youths made in the area of their greatest freedom: leisure activities. He looks at street culture, commercial entertainments, and youth groups and movements and finds that each influenced the emergence of a more cohesive and class-conscious working class during the period up to the First World War.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0773512896
• ISBN 13: 9780773512894
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248