Profile Major Works Resources

Charles Booth, 1840-1916.

English industrialist and social scientist, most famous for leading a compilation of statistics on the London poor.

Originally from a Unitarian family in Liverpool.  A successful but bored glove manufacturer, Charles Booth had been provoked in 1885 by the claims of H.H. Hyndman (leader of Social Democratic Federation) that 25% of Londoners lived in poverty. An enthusiast of August Comte in his youth, Charles Booth set his business aside and decided to investigate the question systematically.  In 1886, Booth recruited a bunch of researchers (including his cousin Beatrice Potter and H. Llewellyn Smith) to investigate the situation in the East End of London, street by street, and compile statistics (some quantitative, some anecdotal) on the condition of its inhabitants.  The findings of the Booth researchers were published in the magisterial Labour and Life of the People, the first volume of which came out in 1889.   Booth reported that they discovered the poverty rate was 35%, much higher than expected.

Booth continued his statistical investigation, expanding to cover the rest of London and eventually produced 17 volumes between 1891 to 1903 (with title now flipped to Life and Labour of the People of London).  The second series (published 1895-97), covered the conditions and occupations of all London residents, and the third series (1902) mapped out the distribution of religious institutions and poor relief.

From his investigations, Charles Booth put out a series of pamphlets asserting the State should take more responsibility for the welfare of the poor - what he called "limited socialism" - including the provision of old age pensions.

Booth's 1901 paper on locomotion noticed and celebrated the impact of the underground tube and tramway lines as a way of reducing the overcrowded conditions of the London slums, by allowing the urban poor to migrate away from the city center towards the healthier edges of the city, and encouraging the development of new cheap housing estates in formerly agricultural land.

Booth's 1904 paper embracing the cause of tariff reform and protectionism invoked a sharp rebuke from the young Cambridge philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Charles Booth sat on the Poor Law Commission established in December, 1905, but resigned in January 1908 on account of ill-health, about a year before it put out its famous competing reports in 1909.  Booth authored his opinion of the reports in a 1910 pamphlet.

 

 

  


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Major Works of Charles Booth

  • England and Ireland: a counter-proposal, 1886
  • "Occupations of the People of the United Kingdom, 1801-81", 1886, JRSS, v.49.
  • "The Inhabitants of Tower Hamlets (School Board Division), their Condition and Occupations", 1887, JRSS, v.50.
  • Condition and Occupations of the People of the Tower Hamlets, 1886-87, being a paper read before the Royal Statistical Society in May, 1887, 1887 [bk]
  • "The Condition and Occupations of the People of East London and Hackney, 1887", 1888, JRSS, v.51.
  • "Enumeration and Classification of Paupers, and State Pensions for the Aged", 1891, JRSS, v.54.
  • Editor, Labour and Life of the People, 1889-91, two volumes + appendix (with tables & maps).
    • v.1 - East London (1889) - classes, trades, special subjects, 1889 v.1, [1889 2nd ed, av1; 1891 3rd ed, v.1]
    • v.2 - London continued (1891) - London by street, central, south, London children [v.2, av2],
      • (v.2 includes chapters by Octavia Hill on "Influence of Character" (p.262), Clara Collet on "West End Tailoring" (p.316) and "Secondary Education - Girls" (p.572)  and  H. Llewellyn Smith on, "Migration, continued" (p.444) by "Secondary Education - Boys" (p.527).)
    • Appendix to Volume 2 (1891) -  classification tables & maps  [app, av]
      • (Appendix includes descriptive maps of poverty in East End (1889) [av], maps of poverty in London (1891) Northwest [av], Northeast [av], Southwest [av], Southeast [av], composite [av], degree of poverty [av], later editions (1903) includes map of churches in London [av] [see also: Charles Booth's London site at LSE, also Booth's "Maps descriptive of London Poverty" (1886-1903) here]
  • Pauperism, a picture, and Endowment of Old Age, an argument, 1892 [bk, av]
  • Editor, Life and Labour of the People of London, 1892-97,  9 volumes + appendix of maps.
    • v.1 - East, Central and South London (1892) -  east, central, south & outlying [v.1, av1]
    • v.2 - Streets and Population Classified (1892) - London street by street, appendix classification and division [v.2, av2]
    • v.3 - Blocks of Buildings, Schools & Immigration (1892) - special subjects, children [v.3, av3
    • v.4 - Trades of East London (1893) [v.4, ..] 
    • v.5 - trades (1895) - building trades, wood-workers, metal workers [v.5, av5]
    • v.6 - trades (1895) - precious metals, watches & instruments, sundry manufactures, printing and paper, textiles) [v.6, av6],
    • v.7 - trades (1896) - dress, food & drink, dealers & clerks, locomotion, manual labour (docks, warehouses, etc) [v.7, av7],
    • v.8 - trades (1896, public service & professional classes, domestic service, unemployed, inmates) [v.8, av8],
    • v.9 - Comparisons, survey and conclusions (1897) [v.9, av9]
  • "Presidential Address: Dock and Wharf Labour", 1893, JRSS, v.55.
  • "Presidential Address: Life and Labour of the People of London: First Results of an inquiry based on the 1891 census", 1893, JRSS, v.56
  • Life and Labour of the People in London: First Results of an Inquiry Based on the 1891 Census. Opening Address Delivered Before the Royal Statistical Society, November, 1893, 1893 [bk]
  • "Statistics of Pauperism in Old Age", 1894, JRSS, v.57.
  • The Aged Poor in England and Wales - condition, 1894 [bk, av]
  • Family Budgets: Being the income and expenses of twenty-eight British households, 1891-1894, with Ernest Aves and Henry Higgs, 1896 [bk]
  • Old Aged Pensions and the Aged Poor - a proposal, 1899 [1906 reprint, bk, av]
  • Improved Means of Locomotion as a First Step Towards the Cure for the Housing Difficulties in London, 1901. [wellcome]
  • Editor, Life and Labour of the People of London, 1902-03, 17 volumes (new & revised edition),
    • First Series - Poverty (1902 reprint of 1889-91), 4 volumes,
    • Poverty v.1 [v.1] - (repr of v.1 - east, central & south) [v.1, av1]
    • Poverty v.2 [v.2] - (repr. of v2. - streets and pop classified) [v.2, ..]
    • Poverty v.3 [v.3] - (repr. of v.3 - Blocks of schools, etc.) [v.3, av3]
    • Poverty v.4 [v.4] - (repr. of v.4 - Trades of East London connected with poverty) [v.4, ..]
    • Second Series - Industry (1902 reprint of 1895-97), 5 volumes,
    • Industry v.1 [v.5] - (repr of v.5 - building, wood, metal) [v.1, av1]
    • Industry v.2 [v.6] - (repr. of v. - precious metals, sundries, etc.) [v.2, av2]
    • Industry v.3 [v.7] - (repr of v.7 - dress, food, etc.)  [v.3, av3]
    • Industry v.4 [v.8] - (repr. of v.8 - Public service & professional classes, domestic service,  unemployed, inmates), [v.4, av4]
    • Industry v.5 [v.9] - (repr. of v.9 - Comparisons, survey and conclusion) [v.5, av5]
    • Third Series - Religious influences (1902, new), 7 volumes,
    • Religious v.1 [v.10] - London North of the Thames, Outer Ring [v.1, av1]
    • Religious v.2 [v.11] - London North of the Thames, Inner Ring [v.2, av2]
    • Religious v.3 [v.12] - City of London & West End [v.3, av3]
    • Religious v.4 [v.13]  - Inner South London [v.4, av4]
    • Religious v.5 [v.14] - Southeast and Southwest London [v.5, av5]
    • Religious v.6 [v.15] - Outer South London [v.6, av6]
    • Religious v.7 [v.16] - Summary [v.7, av7]
    • Final volume [v.17] - Final Volume - note on social influences and conclusions (1902) [vf, vf, avfinal]
  • Rates and the Housing Question in London: An argument for the rating of site values, 1904 [bk], (extract from Final Volume)
  • "Fiscal Reform", 1904, National Review, v.42, p.686.
  • "Fiscal Policy and British Shipping", 1905, Independent Review, v. 5 (Apr), p.352.
  • "Fiscal Policy and British Shipping from the Free Trade Point of View, 1909 [bk]
  • Poor Law Reform, being memoranda submitted in April and December 1907 to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress (with some additional notes), together with an appendix embodying memoranda by Dr. Arthur Downes and Miss Octavia Hill, which were published in the Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1910 [bk] [1911 new ed]
  • Reform of the Poor Law by the Adaptation of the Existing Poor Law areas, and their Administration, 1910.
  • Comments on Proposals for the Reform of the Poor Laws, 1911.
  • Industrial Unrest and Trade Union Policy, 1913 [bk, av]
  • .aasd

 


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Resources on  Charles Booth

  • Poverty: A study of town life by B. Seebohm Rownree, 1901 [bk] [1902 ed]  - statistical study of York, inspired by Booth
  • "Mr Charles Booth's Proposals for Fiscal Reform" by Bertrand Russell, 1904, Contemporary Review (Feb), p.198.
  • Charles Booth Memoir, 1918 [bk]
  • "Some Recollections of Charles Booth", by Clara Collet, 1927, Social Service Review, p.384
  • "Booth, Charles" in 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  • Wiki
     

 

 
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