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In this fascinating book, Ann Woodall investigates and compares the work and thought of William Booth and Karl Marx. What Price the Poor? raises important questions about the relationship between theological discourse and the sociological imagination and it firmly places the development of theoretical and practical social analysis and application within the context of social history. F
List of contents
Contents: Introduction; The pawnbroker’s apprentice; The Reverend William; The revolutionary philosopher; The philosopher as a prophet?; The making of a General; The making of a General’s mind; The General in command; Fifty years on; Index.
About the author
Ann M. Woodall is Chief International Auditor for the Salvation Army. She studied for her PhD at London Guildhall University, UK.
Summary
In this fascinating book, Ann Woodall investigates and compares the work and thought of William Booth and Karl Marx. What Price the Poor? raises important questions about the relationship between theological discourse and the sociological imagination and it firmly places the development of theoretical and practical social analysis and application within the context of social history. F
Additional text
’What do Karl Marx and the Salvation Army’s William Booth have in common? More than one might expect, Ann Woodall suggests in this unusual book. They had similar encounters with the poorest of the poor in the greatest city of the nineteenth century - similar romantic hopes for their redemption - similar movements towards a more systematic programme of social transformation. Without turning Marx into a Salvationist or Booth into a socialist, Woodall shows how the "residuum" captured the imaginations of both religious and secular prophets of social change in the nineteenth century.’ Peter Mandler, Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK ’The plight of the poor around the globe gives special relevance to this broadly informed and readable review of the engagement of Booth and Marx with the realities of intractable poverty among the residuum of Victorian London. As Woodall makes clear, Booth lived out a Gospel of redemptive compassion that produced a Salvation Army with the Cross at its heart. This informative study is an indispensable resource for recovering the historical and theological imperatives of the Army’s continuing pursuit of William Booth’s mission to the poor.’ General Paul A. Rader (Retired), Th.M., D.Miss, Former International Leader of The Salvation Army ’...Woodall’s book is a welcome addition to Salvationist historiography and Victorian social history.’ Ecclesiastical History ’...the intimate and systematic analysis of theology and ideology in [the] particular context of the London residuum adds a further level of understanding to the work of William Booth, the influence of Karl Marx, and responses to metropolitan poverty in the later Victorian period.’ The London Journal
