Unique volume articulating the "gender critical" feminist position 15 chapters by an interdisciplinary team of highly-regarded contributors Engages with an important - but highly polarised - political and social debate.

Unique volume articulating the "gender critical" feminist position 15 chapters by an interdisciplinary team of highly-regarded contributors Engages with an important - but highly polarised - political and social debate.

This fascinating account of young women's lives challenges existing assumptions about working class life and womanhood in England between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the 1950s. While contemporaries commonly portrayed young women as pleasure-loving leisure consumers, this book argues that the world of work was in fact central to their life experiences. Social and economic history are woven together to examine the working, family, and social lives of the maids, factory workers, shop assistants, and clerks who made up the majority of England's young women. Selina Todd traces the complex interaction between class, gender, and locale that shaped young women's roles at work and home, indicating that paid work structured people's lives more profoundly than many social histories suggest. Rich autobiographical accounts show that, while poverty continued to constrain life choices, young women also made their own history. Far from being apathetic workers or pliant consumers, they forged new patterns of occupational and social mobility, were important breadwinners in working class homes, developed a distinct youth culture, and acted as workplace militants. In doing so they helped to shape twentieth-century society.

'Intensely readable... A stimulating and necessary redress' David Kynaston, Spectator Politicians say social mobility is real... this book proves otherwise. From servants' children who became clerks in Victorian Britain, to managers made redundant by the 2008 financial crash, travelling up or down the social ladder has been a fact of British life for more than a century. Drawing on hundreds of personal stories, Snakes and Ladders tells the hidden history of how people have really experienced that social mobility in both directions. It shows how a powerful elite on the top rungs have clung to their perch, as well as introducing us to the unsung heroes who created more room at the top. As we face political crisis after crisis, Snakes and Ladders argues that only by creating greater opportunities for everyone to thrive can we ensure the survival of our society. 'A fascinating, important book' Mail on Sunday 'A trove of stories of human hope and disappointment' New Statesman 'Fascinating... A rich and well-observed historical account' Financial Times

'It is only when you meet someone of a different culture from yourself that you begin to realize what your own beliefs really are.' The Road to Wigan Pier is George Orwell's 1937 study of poverty and working-class life in northern England. It is the book which established Orwell as among Britain's foremost political and social commentators. It is, moreover, essential for any reader who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of Orwell's life, work and legacy. This non-fiction work set the tone for Orwell's subsequent career, by focusing on class relations within Britain and political solutions to social problems. The Road to Wigan Pier has remained widely read since his death, running to several editions, and providing a point of comparison for later social and political commentaries

'A sympathetic and perceptive account of a fine writer at a critical moment in our cultural life' KEN LOACH On 27 May 1958, A Taste of Honey opened in a small fringe theatre in London. Written by a nineteen-year-old bus driver's daughter from Salford, the play exposed a deeply polarised society in Britain, sparked press and political outrage and transformed its young author into an unexpected star. Shelagh Delaney's assertive female characters struck an immediate chord with working-class women who dreamed of more than just suburban housewifery, and her work and legacy would go on to inspire future generations of writers, musicians and artists. This is the remarkable story of how a working-class teenager stormed theatreland, exploded old certainties about class, race, sex and taste, and blazed an incendiary new path in British culture. 'A riveting book' DAVID HARE

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'There was nothing extraordinary about my childhood or background. And yet I looked in vain for any aspect of my family's story when I went to university to read history, and continued to search fruitlessly for it throughout the next decade. Eventually I realised I would have to write this history myself.' What was it really like to live through the twentieth century? In 1910 three-quarters of the population were working class, but their story has been ignored until now. Based on the first-person accounts of servants, factory workers, miners and housewives, award-winning historian Selina Todd reveals an unexpected Britain where cinema audiences shook their fists at footage of Winston Churchill, communities supported strikers, and where pools winners (like Viv Nicholson) refused to become respectable. Charting the rise of the working class, through two world wars to their fall in Thatcher's Britain and today, Todd tells their story for the first time, in their own words. Uncovering a huge hidden swathe of Britain's past, The People is the vivid history of a revolutionary century and the people who really made Britain great.

Politicians claim social mobility is real - a just reward for ambition and hard work. This book proves otherwise. From servants' children who became clerks in Victorian Britain, to managers made redundant by the 2008 financial crash, travelling up or down the social ladder has been a fact of British life for more than a century. Drawing on hundreds of personal stories, Snakes and Ladders tells the hidden history of how people have really experienced that social mobility - both upwards and down. It shows how a powerful elite on the top rungs have clung to their perch and prevented others ascending. It also introduces the unsung heroes who created more room at the top - among them adult educators, feminists and trade unionists, whose achievements unleashed the hidden talents of thousands of people. As we face political crisis after crisis, Snakes and Ladders argues that only by creating greater opportunities for everyone to thrive can we ensure the survival of our society A 'Best books of 2021' prediction: Financial Times, Sunday Times Praise for The People: the Rise and Fall of the Working Class 'The People is a book we badly need' David Kynaston, Observer 'Ms Todd's great ability as an academic is to avoid writing like one' Alistair Dawber, Independent 'What differentiates Selina Todd's book from existing literature on this subject is the way her narrative actually documents the voices of working-class people . . . Brilliant and well-researched' New Internationalist