The story of the working classes in England over the last two centuries is here presented in one readable and intelligible volume by two veteran writers on social questions. This is a masterly book. It is far and away the best available book on its subject. It leads the reader from the last Jacobite rebellion up to the present day, with all its disturbing uncertainties, so skillfully and so fairly that it stakes out a due claim to be an indispensable book.

CONTENTS:

SECTION I – EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND
1. THE OLD ORDER ENDS
2. A JOURNEY THROUGH ENGLAND IN 1746
3. A JOURNEY THROUGH ENGLAND IN 1746 CONTINUED
4. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON
5. CHANGING INDUSTRIES
6. HOW THE PEOPLE LIVED

SECTION II – SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
7. THE UNREFORMED PARLIAMENT
8. WILKES AND LIBERTY
9. THE RIGHTS OF MAN

SECTION III – THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE FRENCH WAR
10. THE AGRARIAN REVOLUTION
11. THE REVOLUTION IN INDUSTRY
12. PARLIAMENT AND THE CLASS SYSTEM
13. ENGLAND AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
14. THE COMBINATION ACTS
15. "KING LUDD"

SECTION IV – THE PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL
16. BRITAIN AFTER WATERLOO
17. WAGES AFTER 1815
18. THE POST-WAR CRISIS – ROBERT OWEN’S "PLAN"
19. REVOLT AND REPRESSION – PETERLOO AND THE SIX ACTS
20. THE RISE OF THE TRADE UNIONS
21. THE STRUGGLE FOR REFORM

SECTION V – ENGLAND UNDER THE REFORM ACT
22. OWEN AND THE TRADE UNIONS
23. THE NEW POOR LAW AND THE RISE OF CHARTISM
24. THE HUNGRY 'FORTIES
25. THE CORN LAWS AND THE CHARTIST DECLINE

SECTION VI – THE GREAT VICTORIAN AGE
26. THE GREAT EXHIBITION
27. THE FRUITS OF FREE TRADE
28. WAGES, PRICES AND CLASSES
29. SOCIAL CHANGES AND LEGISLATION
30. NEW UNIONISM AND CO-OPERATION
31. THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL – REPUBLICANISM AND REFORM
32. THE TRADE UNION ACTS – THE NINE HOURS MOVEMENT – JOSEPH ARCH

SECTION VII – IMPERIALISM AND SOCIALISM
33. IMPERIALISM AND RADICALS
34. THE REVIVAL OF SOCIALISM – THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION
35. THE DOCK STRIKE AND THE INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY
36. WAGES IN THE "GREAT DEPRESSION" – THE EXPORT OF CAPITAL

SECTION VIII – BEFORE THE FIRST WORLD WAR
37. EDWARDIAN BRITAIN
38. LABOUR AND LLOYD GEORGE
39. SYNDICALISM AND SUFFRAGE
40. LIFE AND WAGES BEFORE THE WAR

SECTION IX – THE FIRST WORLD WAR
41. 1914-18

SECTION X – BETWEEN THE WARS
42. REVOLUTION AND "THE DOLE"
43. THE FIRST LABOUR GOVERNMENT
44. THE GENERAL STRIKE AND AFTER
45. THE SECOND LABOUR GOVERNMENT
46. THE CLOSING YEARS

SECTION XI – BRITAIN IN 1939
47. BRITISH IMPERIALISM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
48. POPULATION AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
49. WAGES IN BRITAIN BETWEEN THE WARS
50. CAPITALIST ORGANIZATION

SECTION XII – THE SECOND WORLD WAR
51. EPILOGUE