Category Archives: History

The People: in shops now

The People: the rise and fall of the working class, 1910-2010

Below you can find details of launch events and talks at which I’ll discuss my research on working-class life and the importance of working-class people’s own voices for the history of the last century. Joining me at these events are some fantastic speakers and writers interested in class and inequality, including Melissa Benn, Lynsey Hanley and Kate Pickett

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Nightwaves: working-class life and museums

On 4 April 2013 I appeared on Radio 3’s Nightwaves to discuss whether working-class life is properly represented in Britain’s museums. I argued that the middle-class perspective adopted by museums leads us to equate ideas of ‘quality’ and ‘taste’ with very partial, middle-class ways of seeing the world. You can listen to the programme here

Never Having it That Good: All Souls, Oxford, 23 Oct 2012

On 23 October 2012 I’ll be presenting a paper at the Oxford Economic and Social History Seminar on working-class families in the 1950s. You can read the paper on the Essays page of this website. Alternatively, come along! The seminar is at 5.00pm at All Souls, Oxford. You can find out more about the seminar series here. If you’re interested, you might like to know more about the fascinating work of two of the seminar’s convenors (and intellectual inspirations of mine) Prof Jane Humphries and Dr Deborah Oxley.

Reinvestigating the postwar working class

Residents of Kirkby, Merseyside, watch high-rise council flats being demolished in the 1970s

I discussed my research on the postwar British working class – and specifically my research on working-class communities which shows that housing estates become sink estates thanks to policy interventions (or the lack of them), not due to inhabitants’ behaviour – at the Institute of Historical Studies, University of Texas at Austin, on Monday 9 April 2012. The IHS hosts some fabulous conferences and events; you can find them here.