José Harris, Unemployment and Politics: A Study in English Social Policy. 1886–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)

Abstract

These are important and powerful pictures of British working class life. As Burnett points out, the workers were not so much "alienated" from their work, but disinterested in it, even though it used up most of their waking hours. Throughout the !9th century if they were lucky enough to have a job, they barely had any time to themselves. One obvious conclusion from all this is that the ruling classes of Britain were extraordinarily lucky or clever that their beasts of burden did not have the strength or inclination to turn upon them.