ABSTRACT

Jürgen Kuczynski deals with the history of the working classes in Britain and in the British Empire in seven volumes, one of which is a double volume. Two volumes are rather different from the remainder. One of these is concerned with the history of economic thought and the other describes the condition of the workers in the cotton mills of Shanghai which were owned by English firms. Before discussing each volume in turn a brief reference may be made to some general characteristics of the whole survey of the English workers. Kuczynski writes on a generous scale and his chapters on the workers are usually preceded by accounts of the development of the British economy in particular periods. Whatever he discusses Kuczynski provides numerous tables of statistics. The author is an acknowledged expert in this field and the statistics which he has prepared himself and those which he has taken from other scholars illuminate many of the topics that he discusses.