This book examines the representation of English working-class children — the youthful inhabitants of the poor urban neighborhoods that a number of writers dubbed "darkest England" — in Victorian and Edwardian imperialist literature. In particular, Boone focuses on how the writings for and about youth undertook an ideological project to enlist working-class children into the British imperial enterprise, demonstrating convincingly that the British working-class youth resisted a nationalist identification process that tended to eradicate or obfuscate class differences.
| Series Editor's Foreword |
|
ix | |
| Acknowledgments |
|
xi | |
| List of Illustrations |
|
xv | |
| Introduction |
|
1 | (18) |
| Chapter 1 Henry Mayhew's Children of the Streets |
|
19 | (24) |
| Chapter 2 Class, Violence, and Mid-Victorian Penny Fiction: "Murder Made Familiar"? |
|
43 | (22) |
| Chapter 3 Improving Penny Fiction: The "Ticklish Work" of Treasure Island |
|
65 | (20) |
| Chapter 4 Remaking Lawless Lads and Licentious Girls: The Salvation Army and the Regeneration of Empire |
|
85 | (22) |
| Chapter 5 The Boy Scouts and the Working Classes |
|
107 | (26) |
| Chapter 6 Patriot Games: Football and the First World War |
|
133 | (30) |
| Notes |
|
163 | (46) |
| Bibliography |
|
209 | (16) |
| Index |
|
225 | |
Troy M. Boone is Assistant Professor of English and Acting Director of the Children's Literature Program at the University of Pittsburgh, US.
