Robert Roberts (writer)
Robert Roberts | |
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social historian | |
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Spouse |
Ruth Dean (m. 1935) |
Children | 1 |
Robert Roberts (15 June 1905 – 17 September 1974) was an English teacher, writer and
Born and raised above his parents' corner shop in a deprived district of Salford, Roberts left school at 14 to undertake a seven-year apprenticeship as a brass finisher. Used as a form of cheap labour to carry out menial tasks, he was dismissed when the apprenticeship ended in 1926. Roberts inherited his mother's love of reading and socialist politics; while he spent the next three years unemployed, he attended evening classes to study foreign languages and social history.
In 1929, he was hired as a tutor/teacher at a commercial college. A staunch internationalist, he was dismissed from this job in 1940 when he was exempted as a conscientious objector from military service in the Second World War. After a short period teaching in Liverpool, he spent most of the 1940s and the 1950s working on a relative's farm in Yorkshire while teaching adult education classes and writing for the radio and newspapers. In 1957, he was hired as an education officer at Strangeways Prison in Manchester where he taught illiterate prisoners to read and write, experiences which formed the basis of his first book, Imprisoned Tongues (1968).
In 1971, Roberts followed this up with The Classic Slum, an account of his upbringing in Edwardian Salford which he intermixed with social and oral history. Roberts produced the book to counter what he felt were romantic conceptions of the working-class community in post-war sociological and social history studies; while emphasising the strength of many individual characters, his book highlighted the pervasive and often devastating effects of poverty, as well as the complex status distinctions and conservatism this produced among residents in his "slum". Widely praised on its release, this richly textured account has become a key source for understanding working-class experience in early-20th-century England. Two years later, Roberts moved to Hampshire where he died in 1974. His autobiography, A Ragged Schooling, was published posthumously; also praised, it was a more personal account of his childhood, teenage and early adult years.
Life
Background
Robert Roberts was born on 15 June 1905 at 1 Waterloo Street in Salford, Lancashire.[1] His home town had played a key role in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution: with its neighbour Manchester, it had emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries at the centre of global textile manufacturing and the new factory system of production. This led to the conurbation's rapid expansion, but it also brought poverty as the often poorly paid workers were accommodated in small, densely crowded and unsanitary housing.[2] Friedrich Engels was one of many social observers who commented on this;[3] his description of Salford in The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) highlighted the terrible state of the districts where the workers lived:
Whoever passes over this viaduct and looks down, sees filth and wretchedness enough; and, if any one takes the trouble to pass through these lanes, and glance through the open doors and windows into the houses and cellars, he can convince himself afresh with every step that the workers of Salford live in dwellings in which cleanliness and comfort are impossible.[4]
Salford's economy had
Early life (1905–1919)
Roberts and his siblings were born and raised at the family shop[10] in Waterloo Street.[1] Roberts would draw heavily on his experiences of growing up in this part of Salford when he compiled his autobiographical-historical books decades later.[1] Living above and assisting in the shop allowed him to "eavesdrop on life", as he later wrote; all sorts of people from the community passed through which, along with his own parents' habits, gave him insights into the way people lived in his working-class district.[12] Jennie ran the business, but the elder Robert's work as an engineer was punctuated by periods of unemployment; this combined with the shop's limited takings (in such a poor area) and his heavy drinking to keep the family tied to their neighbourhood for decades.[10][13] The business nearly failed in 1911.[14] Nevertheless, as their son later wrote, they were not "felt to be" fully part of the slum: Robert and Jennie's extended families included relatives with more money or social status than them; the elder Robert was a skilled worker, which brought higher status with it;[15] and Jennie ranked highly in the community because of the status ascribed to her as a shopkeeper and because she could offer credit to other residents.[16]
Roberts did not place his father in high esteem; in his later writings, he criticised the elder Robert's drunkenness and mocked his desire for social status (which Roberts saw as pretentious).
Apprenticeship and unemployment (1919–1929)
He then began a seven-year apprenticeship as a brass finisher.[1][21][n 2] During the 1920s and 1930s, apprentices in engineering were paid less than other workers.[23] As such, employers frequently used them as a source of cheap labour, often with limited training.[24] Roberts's apprenticeship consisted of his repeating mundane tasks for eight and a half hours every day:
Tich led me to a small contraption by a window, pulled a lever to put wheels in motion, tightened a union nut on a pedestal, and ran both, by ratchet, through a couple of whirring butterfly cutters. These flayed and polished two parallel sides of the nut. He then arced the pedestal through 120 degrees and again drove it through the cutters to shave two more flanks. "Now you do it!" ... Over the next two years, in between brushing the alleys and brewing thirty cans of tea each morning, I performed this simplest of tasks for eight and a half hours every working day. This was called an "engineering apprenticeship".[25]
Roberts disliked the job intensely; even after he had been there long enough that new apprentices took over the sweeping (which dispersed metal dust into the air that irritated his lungs), he was required to stand in one place for hours on end to do his job. He recalled in his autobiography that he felt trapped: he yearned to read books, learn, enjoy music and visit Europe.[26] During this time, he became involved in the labour movement.[1][n 3] It was also common in the interwar period for wages to increase sharply on the completion of an apprenticeship, owing to pay structures and union contracts. This increase was often out of step with the limited productivity gained in the process (especially as the apprentice had often been used to carry out low-skilled, routine tasks); it was cheaper for an employer to lay off the apprentice on completion of his "training" and hire a new one to do the same job.[28] Roberts was one of many young men who suffered this fate. After finishing his apprenticeship in 1926, he was summarily dismissed.[1] The next three years were spent jobless. He attended evening classes to learn French and study social history and English literature, and in 1927 founded the Salford Esperanto Society.[1]
Teaching, farm work, writing and later life (1929–1974)
In 1929, Roberts was employed as a French teacher by a local commercial college.[1][n 4] According to his son, Roberts had been attending classes at the college and he obtained the position after he filled in for his teacher during a lesson and impressed the staff.[31] He remained involved in the labour movement and became an internationalist, serving for a time as president of the Manchester Workers' International Club and opposing fascism in Europe (he paid visits to the continent to speak publicly on the topic).[1] In 1935 he married Ruth Dean,[1][n 5] with whom he had a son Glyn in 1937.[1][31] Like Roberts, she was a keen Esperantist[1] and a teacher.[32]
Roberts objected to fighting in the Second World War on conscientious grounds; he was exempted from service in 1940, which led him to be sacked from his job. He then worked at the National Council of Labour Colleges in Liverpool (where he contracted tuberculosis) and then at his grandfather-in-law's farm in Yorkshire.[1] He travelled to Sweden to work as a teacher in 1949, but his work was frustrated when his tuberculosis returned.[1] After treatment, he came back to England. While continuing to work on the farm into the 1950s, Roberts was a part-time adult education tutor and wrote material for the radio (including the children's programme Crusoe Farm for the BBC) and the press.[1]
Roberts was employed by
Work
Imprisoned Tongues (1968)
Imprisoned Tongues was Roberts's first book. Published in 1968 by Manchester University Press, it offered an account of his experiences teaching illiterate and poorly literate prisoners to read and write.[1] He ran hourly classes in 16-week courses. In the opening chapter, he explains that "since little seems to have been written about teaching the illiterate and educationally backward in gaol, I have tried to set down an account of my own experience in the hope that it might be useful to tutors and others coming new to the prison service".[36] Roberts advocated a learning programme in which beginners entered a small class and progressed to larger group sessions once they had mastered the basics.[37] The book included chapters on the prisoners' backgrounds, the use of role playing and group teaching styles, communication methods, and the involvement of prison staff, as well as a glossary of slang.
Writing in
The Classic Slum (1971)
The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century was published by Manchester University Press in 1971 and reprinted by Pelican Books (1978) and Penguin Books (1990).[43] Mixing autobiography, social history and oral history, it gave an account of the Salford "village" of Roberts's childhood and adolescence.[1] In the preface, Roberts explains that he wrote the book because descriptions of working-class life in the period "naturally lacked the factuality that first-hand experience might have given it; few historians are the sons of labourers".[12] He hoped that, as someone who grew up in that environment, he would be able to provide such an account.[12] Its thematically-arranged chapters explored the class structure of the "slum", its residents' possessions and material culture, their manners, food and drink, culture, and schooling. Another chapter discussed prison and the Poor Law system.[44] The final two chapters in the book focused on the First World War and its aftermath.[45] Three appendices each contained a short story: "Conducted Tour" narrated two children exploring their environment, "Snuffy" was about a boy in a library, and "Bronzed Mushrooms" followed a brass worker in the mid-1880s.[46] The book included material on childhood, women's experiences, sexuality, antisemitism, racism, politics, morality and religion;[47] it also articulated Roberts's argument that the First World War profoundly and permanently altered the material, social and political lives of the residents.[n 7]
Contemporary reception
The book was widely acclaimed on its release.[1] Marghanita Laski in The Times called it the "direct, personally-reminiscent examination we would always wish to have of life in any class".[49] Reviewing the book for The Daily Telegraph, Michael Kennedy praised the "vivid, moving, funny, unsentimental" first-hand descriptions, arguing that it "may well be a classic book";[50] in The Sunday Telegraph, J. M. W. Thompson praised the way Roberts mixed together personal reminisces with social history.[51] Keith Dewhurst for The Guardian commended Roberts's richly textured account and the wealth of information he included.[52] Its usefulness as a source was also praised in an anonymous review for The Guardian, which lauded the inclusion of photographs of Edwardian Salford by Samuel Coulthurst.[53]
The social historian
It was met with a more qualified response by E. W. Cooney in The Economic History Review; while noting its "vivid, richly textured and sometimes moving" portrayal of working-class life and its "interesting" arguments about conservatism, status and illiteracy, Cooney observed that much of the material was solely based on memory or on conversations with other people which took place half a century before publication. The reviewer also critiqued the book for its lack of citations and for Roberts's generalisations based on his own experiences.[58] Though praising its evidentiary value and insights into slum life, P. J. Waller (in the journal History) also critiqued Roberts's limited referencing, and felt that the weaker points of the book occurred where he engaged with academic debates.[59]
Themes and contributions to scholarship
Writing in
The Classic Slum has been characterised by the historian
Sociologists had often looked to the working class as the potentially revolutionary
The cultural studies scholar Susanne Schmid has noted that Roberts was unusual in incorporating the voices of his working-class subjects in the account; she has argued that, unlike many social commentators, he presented residents as active agents who "constantly interact[ed] through communal activities, through gossip, through competing displays of their modest prosperity".[78] Whereas outside observers (including sympathetic ones like Engels and George Orwell) often depicted the working class as both passive and dirty, Roberts emphasised their constant striving to keep clean, which stemmed from their desire for respectability.[79] Schmid has also argued that Roberts expressed some nostalgia for a "pure" form of English working class culture, which had become Americanised by the time he wrote the book.[80]
A Ragged Schooling (1976)
Roberts's third and final book was his autobiography A Ragged Schooling: Growing up in the Classic Slum,
Writing for
Though not as influential as The Classic Slum, it confirmed to Davies Roberts's "reputation as one of the most sensitive chroniclers of English working-class life".[1] Like his previous book, it contained a wealth of material about the working class and has been influential in historical writing on the topic.[7] It has also been used by scholars interested in women's experiences[85] and sexuality in working-class communities.[86] A Ragged Schooling is, however, a highly personal and "intimate" account,[84] focused on Roberts's experiences through to his young adulthood.[83] Publishers Weekly noted that the book was "thematic and anecdotal: at its core are the mysteries of sex, religion, work and the rigors of daily life".[87] His relationship with his mother was also a key theme; he admired her work ethic and attitude towards education, and the book ends with her death.[19][83]
References
Notes
- ^ He did recall sharing his father's frustration that Jennie (with no medical training) would call in on the local sick when they asked for her help, putting the Roberts family at risk.[18] Roberts's father generally supported learning, but only when carried out alongside working full-time.[19]
- ^ A brass finisher was a "general term for any worker employed on finishing brass castings or stampings, including brass turner, filer, burnisher, polisher, driller, solderer, fitter, etc."[22]
- ^ Roberts gives an account of joining the Amalgamated Engineering Union in his autobiography.[27]
- ^ The teacher Albert Heinig wrote that commercial education in England involved "develop[ing] the mental faculties of the pupil ... most needed in business life" and providing training for technical skills useful in business or office-based employment.[29] Commercial colleges were established to provide this education.[30]
- ^ She was born in 1911, the daughter of Albert Dean, a butcher.[31]
- ^ His other books included Sailing in a Sieve (1963).[32]
- ^ Roberts argues that the pressures of the First World War increased the movement of unskilled labour into skilled jobs. This "dilution" demystified skilled occupations (which had been previously fiercely protected by the trade unions and often kept exclusive to the sons of skilled labourers), resulted in a rapid increase in trade union membership amongst those previously in unskilled jobs, and gave a new-found confidence and material affluence to these sections of the population (as wage differentials fell and wages themselves rose). Roberts argues that this finally broadened the social and cultural horizons of "slum villages" like his, and led to the spread of new forms of popular entertainment and greater liberation for a new generation of men and women. He argues that these processes also weakened the hold of Tory politics on the unskilled labourer and led to the growth of the labour movement, while experiences of the war itself eroded some older attitudes and bred more tolerance in his community.[45][48]
- Jon Lawrence argues that Roberts was "offering two distinct perspectives" on class identities: firstly, he used an internally-focused model which emphasised the distinctions between residents; and he deployed an externally-focused one which stressed the deep distinction between residents and people outside of the slum.[71]
- Jon Lawrence explains that the concept was rooted in images of urban working-class neighbourhoods with "cohesive, culturally rich 'communities' with their own value systems". He argues that it was often used to articulate concerns that certain social reforms might destabilise or damage the working class.[73]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Davies 2004.
- ^ Davies, Fielding & Wyke 1992, p. 1.
- ^ Briggs 1990, pp. 88–101, 105.
- ^ Engels 1993, p. 74.
- ^ Davies, Fielding & Wyke 1992, p. 4.
- ^ Davies 1991, p. 90.
- ^ a b c Davies, Fielding & Wyke 1992, p. 9.
- ^ a b Roberts 1984, pp. 2, 4.
- ^ Roberts 1984, pp. 4–5.
- ^ a b c Roberts 1990, p. 15.
- ^ Roberts 1984 includes a sketch of the shop opposite the title page.
- ^ a b c Roberts 1990, p. 9.
- ^ Roberts 1984, pp. 7–8, 19.
- ^ Roberts 1990, p. 82.
- ^ Roberts 1990, pp. 14–15.
- ^ a b Woolfson 1972, p. 386.
- ^ Strange 2015, pp. 103–104.
- ^ Roberts 1984, p. 15.
- ^ ProQuest 476353860
- ^ Roberts 1990, pp. 144–145.
- ^ "Robert Roberts". Penguin Random House. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
- ^ Ministry of Labour 1927, p. 222.
- ^ Eichengreen 1986, p. 350.
- ^ Galvani 2017, p. 36.
- ^ Roberts 1984, pp. 181–182.
- ^ Roberts 1984, pp. 213–215.
- ^ Roberts 1984, pp. 214–215.
- ^ Eichengreen 1986, pp. 350–351.
- ^ Heinig 1902, p. 125.
- ^ Dalvi 1965, pp. 174–175.
- ^ a b c "Beginnings". Glyn Roberts. 12 April 2016. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ a b c Roberts, Adam (6 May 2016). "Glyn Roberts Obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ProQuest 1701375908
- ProQuest 1701397012
- ^ "Binstead Hall 1999–2004". Glyn Roberts. 25 April 2016. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ Roberts 1968, p. 1.
- ^ Irvine 1969, p. 97.
- ProQuest 185403315
- ^ Irvine 1969, pp. 96–96.
- ^ Parker 1969, pp. 411–412.
- ^ Gunn 1969, p. 972.
- ^ Mitchel 1969, p. 122.
- ^ Bibliographic information in Roberts 1990.
- ^ a b c Balfour 1972, p. 491.
- ^ a b c Balfour 1972, pp. 491–492.
- ^ Located at Roberts 1990, pp. 239–254.
- ^ Perkin 1973, pp. 665–666; on women's lives, see also Bornat 1977, p. 130; on sexuality, see Vincent 1980, p. 229, who notes how Roberts' unusually frank descriptions of working-class sexuality in both A Ragged Schooling and The Classic Slum have proven valuable to historians (he wrote about extramarital relationships, prostitution, incest, masturbation and attitudes towards sex).
- ^ a b Woolfson 1972, pp. 386–387.
- Gale CS202994897
- Gale IO0703668004
- Gale IO0709220369
- ProQuest 185489426
- ProQuest 185542627
- ^ Perkin 1973, p. 665.
- ^ a b Suttles 1975, p. 33.
- ^ a b Marris 1972, p. 130.
- ^ Standen 1974, p. 278.
- ^ Cooney 1972, pp. 175–176.
- ^ Waller 1972, p. 465.
- ^ a b Sutcliffe-Braithwaite 2018, p. 26.
- ^ Roberts 2007, p. 202.
- ^ Lawrence 2016, p. 573.
- ^ Rosenfeld 2008, p. 133.
- ^ Roberts 1990, p. 47.
- ^ Roberts 1990, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Lawrence 2016, pp. 572–573.
- ^ Thompson 1993, p. 57.
- ^ Davies, Fielding & Wyke 1992, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Searle 2004, p. 112.
- ^ Cannadine 1998, p. 126.
- ^ Lawrence 2000, p. 311.
- ^ Woolfson 1972, p. 385.
- ^ Lawrence 2016, p. 568.
- ^ Gaughan 2008, p. 54.
- ^ Rosenfeld 2008, p. 138.
- ^ Rosenfeld 2008, p. 137.
- ^ Gaughan 2008, p. 54; Marris 1972, p. 130; see also, Waller 1972, p. 465, who summarises that, in Roberts' description, the isolated slum "constricts horizons", "stunts" its inhabitants, and leaves in place of "ambitions only ... day dreams".
- ^ Schmid 2007, p. 352.
- ^ Schmid 2007, pp. 351–352.
- ^ Schmid 2007, pp. 352–353.
- ^ Bibliographic information in Roberts 1984.
- Gale IO0703055357
- ^ Birmingham Daily Post. p. 2. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
- ^ a b "Paperback Bookshelf". Lichfield Mercury. 10 February 1978. p. 15. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
- ^ Bornat 1977, p. 130.
- ^ Vincent 1980, p. 229.
- ^ "A Ragged Schooling: Growing Up in the Classic Slum". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 244, no. 36. 1 September 1997. p. 86. Archived from the original on 27 June 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
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