Rothschild Buildings

Winner of the Jewish Chronicle Harold H. Wingate Literary Award.

Rothschild Buildings were typical of the 'model dwellings for the working classes' which were such an important part of the response to late-Victorian London's housing problem. They were built for poor but respectable Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and the community which put down roots there was to be characteristic of the East End Jewish working class in its formative years.

By talking to people who grew up in the Buildings in the 1890s and after and using untapped documentary evidence from a wide range of public and private sources the author re-creates the richly detailed life of that community and its relations with the economy and culture around it. The book shows how cramped and austere housing was made into homes; how the mechanism of class domination of which the Buildings were part was both accepted and fought against; how a close community was riven with constantly shifting tensions; and how that community co-existed in surprising ways with the East End casual poor of 'outcast London'.

It provides unique and fascinating insights into immigrant and working-class life at the turn of the last century.

About the author

Professor Jerry White teaches London history at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of an acclaimed trilogy of London from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. His more recent books include Mansions of Misery: A Biography of the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison and Zeppelin Nights, a social history of London during the First World War. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University of London in 2005 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Product details

• Authors: Jerry White
• Publisher: Pimlico
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.01.2003
• EAN: 9780712601467
• ISBN: 978-0-7126-0146-7
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 153 mm x 234 mm x 20 mm
• Weight: 562 g
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; London, Greater London, European History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness, 20th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901), c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Poverty & unemployment, Later 19th century c 1850 to c 1899, Social and cultural history, Early 20th century c 1900 to c 1950, Relating to Jewish people and groups, c 1900 to c 1909, Social groups: religious groups and communities, Welfare & benefit systems, Welfare and benefit systems