This is a study of how the labouring poor of nineteenth-century industrial England saw the social order of which they were a part. It attacks orthodoxies and sets up new questions by attending to a wide range of contemporary experience, from politics and work to language and art.

‘Visions of the People is an immensely important work that opens up new avenues of historical enquiry and raises a number of critical questions that desperately need to be addressed. It will become a key point of reference for many years to come.’

Source: Social History

‘ … a powerful and pathbreaking book … one of those rare books which urges that we should look at our past in a new way.’

Source: The Times Higher Education Supplement

‘ … of consuming interest for all those concerned to understand Victorian England … a very important book.’

Source: The Times Literary Supplement