ABSTRACT
The title of this book is taken from one of the best known working class autobiographies, William Lovett's The Life and Struggles of William Lovett In his Pursuit of Bread, Knowledge and Freedom. The phrase captures the essence of both Lovett's career and those of the majority of individuals whose accounts we are studying. These were men who struggled for their bread in common with the rest of their class, but who also found in themselves the desire and the energy to embark upon the pursuit of knowledge and freedom. The order in which these objectives were listed reflected the relationship between them. The pursuit of bread was the prime concern of any working man, and the context within which all other activities were conducted. The pursuit of knowledge derived its impetus from the circumstances under which bread was gained, and in turn was seen as the essential pre-condition for the pursuit of freedom. By "knowledge" Lovett and the other autobiographers meant book knowledge, and the reading and on occasions writing of literature lay at the centre of their response to the industrializing society. As we saw in chapter two, the autobiographies were themselves a product of the invasion of the lives of working men and women by the written word, and their contents record the diverse attempts which were made to use the materials and skills of written communication to come to terms with their situation in the organization of production, and to create the possibility of emancipating themselves from the forces which controlled their lives. Part Three will study the pursuit of knowledge in its relation to the pursuit of bread and freedom at three levels. The present chapter is concerned with books as physical objects. It examines the way in which the profile of the pursuit of knowledge was defined by the efforts made by the readers to resolve the practical problems with which they were faced. The following chapters will look at the debate which took place over the meaning of the notion of "useful knowledge" and at the attempts which were made to connect knowledge with freedom.
