The Wheelwright's Shop

E. P. Thompson's new foreword acclaims the significance of Sturt's engaging narrative as a vital document in the history of labour at the turn of the century.

George Sturt (Author)

9780521091954, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 January 1963

264 pages
21.3 x 13.7 x 1.5 cm, 0.29 kg

'It shows in the author a combination of the gifts of a handicraftsman, the actual maker of things, with the powers of a writer, in a way not common in English literature.' The Times Literary Supplement

George Sturt's frank and moving account of his trade as a wheelwright in the late nineteenth century offers a unique glimpse into the working lives of craftsmen in a world since banished by technology. The wheelwright's shop where he entered business had been operating for two centuries; this chronicle, first published in 1923, is a poignant record of that tradition, written as it was passing into history. E. P. Thompson's new foreword acclaims the significance of Sturt's engaging narrative as a vital document in the history of labour at the turn of the century.

1. Origins
2. Timber
3. General work
4. Wheels
5. Tyring
6. Smithing and sundries
7. The old order changing
Notes
Glossary
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]