From Workhouse to Westminster: The Life Story of Will Crooks, M.P.

Haw, GeorgeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5

Word count: 437K words
Chapters: 44

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.From Workhouse to Westminster: The Life Story of Will Crooks, M.P. by George HawAuthor: Haw, George,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Oct 11, 2012

Editor's review

From Workhouse to Westminster: The Life Story of Will Crooks, M.P. is a biography by George Haw tracing Will Crooks's journey from the workhouse to the British Parliament, classified under British history (DA). Its appeal lies in using one life to illuminate the threads of social reform, the labour movement and local politics in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain, making it suitable for readers interested in modern British history, the history of social reform and biography. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain e-book, it is freely accessible and searchable, but the publication information offers no translation, annotations or scholarly introduction, so reading it requires some English proficiency and historical background. It is best read as an introductory biography for understanding the social conditions of the time rather than as a complete scholarly edition; pairing it with background material on the British Poor Law and the early history of the Labour Party will make for a more solid reading experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in modern British history, social reform and the labour movement
Readers who enjoy biography and want to learn how an ordinary person entered politics
Undergraduates or researchers with English reading ability who need public-domain historical documents
Readers concerned with the Poor Law, local politics and parliamentary reform

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a Chinese translation and prefer not to deal with the English original
Rigorous researchers expecting contemporary scholarly annotations, references or a critical introduction
Readers with little interest in British political history who want only light storytelling

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and chapter titles to map the timeline from workhouse to Parliament before starting the main text.
Note key terms relating to the British Poor Law, trade unions and local politics as you read to aid understanding of the background.
Read alongside a brief history of nineteenth-century British social reform or material on the early history of the Labour Party.
After each chapter, summarize in a few sentences the subject's situation and the historical context, so as not to read only the story and miss the institutional threads.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Who is Will Crooks, the subject of this book?

According to the title and the available information, Will Crooks was a British Member of Parliament (M.P.) whose life journey led from the workhouse to the Westminster Parliament. The book tells this story in biographical form, but the information provides no further biographical details, so readers should rely on the narrative in the book.

What historical background is needed to read this book?

Some knowledge of the British Poor Law, the labour movement and local politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries will help. If background knowledge is lacking, reading a brief history of British social reform first will make the biography easier to follow.

Is this a scholarly edition? Does it have annotations and references?

This is a Project Gutenberg public-domain e-book, and the publication information shows no scholarly introduction, detailed annotations or references. It is better suited to reading as an introductory biography and historical document; rigorous research requires consulting scholarly editions and archival materials separately.

How difficult is the English? Is it suitable for non-native English readers?

The information does not specify the language difficulty, but as an early twentieth-century English biography, its sentence structures and vocabulary may feel dated. Readers with university-level English reading ability will find it easier to get started; non-native readers may try one chapter first and decide whether to read the whole book with the help of a dictionary and background material.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Haw, George Author

George Haw is an author about whom relatively little biographical information is available; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not clearly recorded. What can be confirmed is that he wrote From Workhouse to Westminster: The Life Story of Will Crooks, M.P. Set against the background of the British labour movement and the poor-law system, the book recounts how Will Crooks grew up in a workhouse, became involved in social activism, and eventually was elected to Parliament. It belongs to a mode of writing that blends biography with modern British social history. The narrative is clear in outline, using one individual's fate to reflect changes in social institutions, and its plain language gives it the character of a popular biography aimed at general readers. Because public information is limited, Haw's other works, professional identity, and writing activities remain to be further verified; at present his writing orientation can be understood only on the basis of this single work.