Men, Women and Property in England, 1780–1870
A Social and Economic History of Family Strategies amongst the Leeds Middle Class

This is an innovative study of middle-class behaviour and property relations in English towns in Georgian and Victorian Britain.

R. J. Morris (Author)

9780521838085, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 February 2005

460 pages, 79 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.84 kg

"...an impressive and important book." -Bettina Bradbury, Histoire sociale

This is an innovative 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 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, and to debates about the place of structural and cultural analysis in historical understanding.

1. Joseph Henry Oates: a world of madeira and honey
2. In search of the British middle class
3. Reading the wills: a window on family and property
4. The property cycle
5. Strategies and the urban landscape
6. Women and things and trusts
7. Life after death
8. Networks and place
9. The economic history of the British middle class, 1816–70
10. Conclusion and epilogue
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Social & cultural history [HBTB], British & Irish history [HBJD1]