'the intellectual life of the british working classes'
this jumped at me from the new books shelf in the canterbury central library
jonathan rose has written an inspirational account of the autodidactic spirit amongst the poor. repeatedly he finds that the presence of weavers seems to correlate with high literacy rates. looking at the borrowing records of subscription libraries set up by working class organizations long before there was any municipal provision and by examining the autobiographies of ordinary men and women he proves how the stories that my parents told me of individuals forced by their poverty to educate themselves by reading under street lamps are not apochryphal.