In this second volume of her memoirs, Jennifer Worth documents the lives of people in London’s East End who were shaped by the British Victorian workhouse system. Through her work as a midwife in the 1950s, she encounters individuals like Jane, who suffered childhood physical abuse within the institution, and Peggy and Frank, siblings whose lives were fractured by the harsh segregation of the New Poor Law. Worth describes the institutional cruelty, the forced labor, and the social stigma that persisted long after the official abolition of these facilities.
Readers interested in social history and nursing narratives choose this book to understand the specific legal and economic structures that governed the lives of Britain's working poor. It provides a detailed look at the transition from nineteenth-century social policy to the modern welfare state. The reader gains a factual perspective on how systemic negligence impacted family units and health outcomes across generations. The text functions as a historical record of the displacement and survival of the London underclass during the mid-twentieth century.
Contemplative and clear-cut; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2005
- Language
- EN
