Writing the Lives of the English Poor 1750s–1830s presents an important and innovative perspective on poverty, the Old Poor Law and the poor themselves. Steven King puts the poor at the heart of the poor law, through extensive analysis of pauper letters. Rather than define the poor in terms of statistics or legislation, King ensures the way in which people experienced and shaped the welfare system is foregrounded. Agency and negotiation are central tenets throughout the book. He demonstrates how the Old Poor Law was meant to be negotiated, and that poor relief was a process of negotiation between officials, claimants and advocates. Steven King is a leading scholar in the field of poverty, poor relief and welfare, ensuring he adeptly handles complex questions of power, agency and practice. The book begins with a discussion of how welfare was constructed through the Old Poor Law, highlighting diversity in practice which in turn affected experiences of the poor law. Integral to this was the role of agency and negotiation by the poor. The letters written by the poor and their advocates underpin the author’s main arguments, making methodological discussions about the epistolary practices of the poor an invaluable foundation. King considers how historians should conceptualise and understand these letters, including the role of authorship in this process. The structure and form of pauper letters was affected by their function, characteristics and tone, and raise questions of honesty and representativeness. However, as King argues, most letters were written by those that signed them and the information was broadly accurate and honest. Nevertheless, they still present challenges and King raises numerous questions towards the end of the first part of the book, which are addressed in subsequent sections. Part 2 examines acts of navigation and reception. This includes practical elements such as how the poor obtained paper and ink, the quality of the paper they wrote on, where they wrote the letters and how their letters were conveyed to their recipients – aspects which King argues took on symbolic value in the process of negotiation. As King states, ‘the dependent poor were engaged in a rich epistolary interchange’. This section also considers the official reception of the letters including their private and public nature and the process of reception and decision making. The terminology of the letters is discussed, together with the extent to which there was a shared language and the extent to which this was necessary in order to negotiate poor relief. Part 3 explores the rhetorical structures of the letters. Here King discusses the ‘cooperative process of persuasion... that is played out in a public forum and draws on a complex amalgam of logical, rational, emotional, and strategic thought and language’, and highlights letter types, the importance of situational context, personal connections

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书评

《1750 年代至 1830 年代英国穷人的生活写作》提供了关于贫困、旧济贫法和穷人本身的重要且创新的视角。史蒂文·金通过对贫民信件的广泛分析，将穷人置于贫民法的核心。金并没有根据统计数据或立法来定义穷人，而是确保将人们体验和塑造福利体系的方式放在首位。代理和谈判是整本书的核心原则。他展示了旧济贫法是如何谈判的，贫困救济是官员、索赔人和倡导者之间的谈判过程。史蒂文·金是贫困、贫困救济和福利领域的领先学者，确保他能熟练地处理权力、代理和实践等复杂问题。这本书首先讨论了如何通过旧济贫法构建福利，强调实践中的多样性，这反过来又影响了济贫法的经验。与此相关的是穷人的代理和谈判作用。穷人及其拥护者写的信支持作者的主要论点，使关于穷人书信实践的方法论讨论成为宝贵的基础。金考虑了历史学家应该如何概念化和理解这些信件，包括作者身份在这个过程中的作用。乞丐信的结构和形式受到其功能、特点和语气的影响，并引发了诚实性和代表性的问题。然而，正如金所说，大多数信件都是由签名者写的，信息大致准确和诚实。尽管如此，它们仍然存在挑战，金在本书第一部分的结尾提出了许多问题，这些问题将在后续章节中解决。第 2 部分检查导航和接收行为。这包括实际要素，例如穷人如何获得纸张和墨水、他们书写的纸张的质量、他们写信的地点以及他们的信如何传达给收件人——金认为这些方面具有象征意义。谈判。正如金所说，“依赖穷人的人参与了丰富的书信交流”。本节还考虑了信件的正式接收，包括它们的私人和公共性质以及接收和决策的过程。讨论了这些字母的术语，以及在多大程度上有共同的语言，以及在多大程度上这是谈判贫困救济所必需的。第 3 部分探讨了这些字母的修辞结构。在这里，金讨论了“说服的合作过程......这是在公共论坛上进行的，并利用逻辑、理性、情感和战略思想和语言的复杂组合”，并强调了信件类型、情境背景的重要性, 个人关系