In the late nineteenth century, the extent of unemployment in Britain challenged prevailing ideologies that insisted on men's economic independence and blamed the poor for their poverty. With increasing numbers of newly-enfranchised men who had been regular workers applying for humiliating poor relief, policymakers produced structural explanations for unemployment that recognized men could not always find work even when they wanted it. In the face of these new economic and political realities, a remarkably broad consensus developed around a model of working-class masculinity that incorporated...
In the late nineteenth century, the extent of unemployment in Britain challenged prevailing ideologies that insisted on men's economic independence an...
