Men, Women and Property in England, 1780–1870

Download or read book Men, Women and Property in England, 1780–1870 written by R. J. Morris and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-02-03 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.