The intellectual life of the British working classes

Machine generated contents note: Chapter One A Desire for Singularity 12

Scottish Overture I 16 The Milkmaid's Iliad 18

Knowledge and Power 20 Literature and Dogma 29

Conservative Authors and Radical Readers 39

The Craftsman's Tools 48

Chapter Two Mutual Improvement 58

Scottish Overture II 59 Self-Culture 62

Proletarian Science 70 How They Got On 73

Chekhov in Canning Town 79 A Common Culture? 83

Chapter Three The Difference Between Fact and Fiction 92

Cinderella as Documentary 93 Audience Participation 98

Blood, Iron, and Scripture 102 New Crusoes 106

Pickwickian Realism 111

Chapter Four A Conservative Canon 116

A General Theory of Rubbish 120 The People's Bard 122

The Hundred Best Books 125 Everyman's Library 131

Catching Up 136

Chapter Five Willingly to School 146

A Better-Than-Nothing Institute 151

Possibilities of Infinitude 156 Strict but Just 168

Parental Support 172 Unmanly Education 177

Regrets and Discontents 182

Chapter Six Cultural Literacy in the Classic Slum 187

Sheffield 1918 190 Wagner and Hoot Gibson 196

Aristotle and Dr. Stopes 206 Current Affairs 220

The Right to Language 223

The Most Unlikely People Buy Books Now 230

Chapter Seven The Welsh Miners' Libraries 237

An Underground University 238

Marx, Jane Eyre, Tarzan 244

Decline and Fall 253

Chapter Eight The Whole Contention Concerning the Workers'

Educational Association 256

The Ruskin Rebellion 258 The Difficultyabout That 265

What Did the Students Want? 282 The Reward 292

Chapter Nine Alienation from Marxism 298

Evangelical Materalism 300 Have You Read Marx? 305

Unethical Socialism 307 Stalin Reads Thackeray 315

Chapter Ten The World Unvisited 321

Greyfriars' Children 322 Adolescent Propaganda 331

Marlborough and All That 335 A Map of the World 341

Building Jerusalem 350 To the West 353

Recessional 362

Chapter Eleven A Mongrel Library 365

The Function of Penny Dreadfuls 367

Poverty and Indiscrimination 371

Boys' Stories for Girls 379

The Dog That Was Down 381 Uses and Gratifications 386

Chapter Twelve What Was Leonard Bast Really Like? 393

Restricting Literacy 394

The Insubordination of the Clerks 401 The Bridge 413

By Office Boys for Office Boys 417 The Better Hole 421

Cultural Triage 431

Chapter Thirteen Down and Out in Bloomsbury 439

On the Fringe 439 Where is Bohemia? 447

Before the Youth Culture 453 What Went Wrong? 455

Notes 465

Index 518.