ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in this book. Historians are agreed that in the last two hundred years there has been a transformation in social relations: in the late eighteenth century, life was lived largely in public outside the home, and this was the case in plebeian neighbourhoods in cities. During 1780-1870, was chosen for several reasons: it bookends the conventional period of industrialization. The 1780s also saw growing disillusionment with the Old Poor Law and increasing calls for moral regeneration of the poor. By the 1860s London was undergoing a crisis in the relief of poverty. This book focuses on the vernacular population of London was divided into multiplicity of strata whose boundaries were often ill-defined, although that between skilled and unskilled workers who were considered significantly and generally recognized. It presents an urban customary culture which was an adaptation of the culture women and men brought with them to London from their natal villages.
