Hooligans and Rebels?: An Oral History of Working-Class Childood and Youth 1889 - 1939

by Stephen Humphries

In this fascinating book, Stephen Humphries examines all aspects of childhood delinquency, from hooliganism, teenage gangs and vandalism to juvenile crime and classroom anarchy. He shows that far from being simply the product of contemporary society, the rebellion of under-privileged children and youth has a long and compelling history. By drawing on oral testimonies and forgotten documentary accounts, the author evokes a vivid picture of young people at war with adults in the days when children were to be "seen and not heard". The recollections of working-class people, rarely if ever heard in conventional histories, provide an authentic and often moving account of how working-class children coped with an often harsh and oppressive world.
Hooligans and Rebels will be welcomed by all those interested in oral history, and the history of youth in modern British society.

Genres: Oral History

287 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1995

Reviews

[Michael]

A very useful study into the resistance put up by working class kids and youth against emerging and established institutions designed to secure their subjection and conformity. This excellent book (part research part oral testimony) details the punitive, often brutal methods sanctioned for use against children, in education, in care, and in reform schools. Working class kids were deemed to be ignorant, dirty, and limited, but would be useful enough later on to clean other people's homes and to perform menial industrial and other labour intensive work for a pittance. In preparation for this life of drudgery they were expected to acknowledge the inalienable rights and power of religion, the monarchy, the empire, and the burgeoning middle classes; and to accept without protest their place at the bottom of the social ladder. No amount of demonising waffle by commentators at that time can obscure the fact that working class kids had a moral code, and independent life and outlook, never understood beyond their own social sphere. How this unsettled the rest of society. Hence the attempt at brutal subjugation. No wonder the kids rebelled. Thankfully they still do.

[Jason]

I just loved this book. It shows just how nasty compulsory schooling was at its inception. I'd already got this idea from The Rainbow, bu the level of detail in this oral history is astounding. The witnesses are lively, sharp and to the point.

It makes me wonder how we have got to the stage where people demand more school and more education. Whatever happened to the rebels?