Curtis’s Reviews > The Making of the English Working Class > Status Update

Super tough book, much f it over my head, still learned lots. Fun varied depending on section; Luddism, looks at life/conditions & activist history: best bits. Wish it had gotten to showing what working class did with itself after identity solidified! Kept alluding to Chartists doing so, but never covered it. Purely a look at how conditions pushed people into sink/swim situation, with pessimistic end. Great but hard.

Last chapter shows consolidation of past events into working class consciousness, following 3 big standoffs + easing of some repressive laws in the wake. First section on activist press & many factions dominating a lot of reading; great stuff! But current section detailing certain writers surprisingly difficult/boring, getting into long breakdowns of prose styles, so meticulous I lose sight of writers broad views.

3 attempts at insurrection: Pentridge, Peterloo, Cato Street. Great narrative of postwar breakdown of activist movement; rift between reformers & revolutionaries, clashing personalities (Hunt & Thistlewood), govt. spies pushing people into self-destructive action. Competing working class journals, crackdowns on speech leading to increased radicalism (6 Acts). Author great at nuancing these movements from mere mobs.

Ch. 14 V got deeper into Luddites, specifically their organization & tactics. Loved it, especially the attacks on factories & machines responsible for slashed wages, not punishing capitalists who treated workers better, assigning leaders to each assault, & more threatening letters which are always great. Death penalty put on people who damage certain machines, but gains made as well. Wanna learn more about this.

Workers fighting against combination acts, being pushed underground, etc. Loved bits about unions being like nefarious secret gangs, meeting on moors in dead of night, oaths sworn in front of effigies of death, burying their records, etc. Shows how life or death this was, how people would be at risk of losing everything, including lives. Luddism explained in detail; much more than just destroying machines. So dense!

Deep dive into culture of the time, events & recreation. How capitalist class coordinated w/ churches to tamp down any recreation other than being pious! Everything a vice now, 'divine hierarchy.' Finally addressing women's struggles locked in that structure too. Part 3 starts with trying to revive activist movement after French Revolution they emulated went all Napoleon/Britain went nationalist. Halfway through!

Last two chapters just what I wanted: deep descriptions of everyday drudgery & oppression of workers. Chapter 9: danger & conditions of cotton mills. Chapter 10 details life in various stages, with childhood section most disturbing. Perpetual brink of famine in poor regions. Breaks down statistics/figures to explain why appearance of median wealth is deceiving & has given false positive perception to this period.

Firsthand accounts are highlights, especially threatening letters from peasant/worker class to wealthy. Though chapters on industries focus less on painting picture of day to day, instead focusing on socio-political issues facing groups at the time. Field laborer section talks of enclosures & land being gobbled up by capitalists. In reversal of contemporary French novels, English see rural poor as vile, not virtuous.

Just what I wanted; seems part 2 explores working conditions among key industries that led labour activism! Hoping for descriptive, immersive daily life descriptions. Thompson's goal is to attack the idea that the tech advances of industrial revolution advanced the material conditions of working class, suggesting that this period was more repressive despite more money changing hands. We'll see if he sells it!

Ch. 5 best so far. Latter half breaks down different major activists, and shows the defeat of activist momentum by English society becoming more oppressive in wake of French Revolution/ramping up of war fervor. Thelwall particularly notable figure. In part 2 I'd love to see a real portrait of work/living conditions for working class, something to immerse me in the time & issues. But much more readable now! Enjoying!