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HIST277: In Search of the Underclass: Politics and Poverty in Britain Since 1970

There has recently been much discussion in Britain about ‘troubled’ or ‘problem’ families, the 120,000 families who allegedly are the source of most social problems.  But how are these families defined?  Are their problems caused by the environment that they find themselves in, or by the choices that they make?  What can or should be done about them?  And do they really exist at all, other than in the minds of politicians?  This course explores the history of fears about an ‘underclass’ in Britain and the United States since the 1970s.  Taught by the leading authority on the history of the concept, author of Underclass: A History of the Excluded, 1880-2000 (Continuum 2006), this course explores four reconstructions: the ‘cycle of deprivation’ (1970s); the ‘underclass’ in the United States (1980s); the ‘underclass’ in Britain (1980s); and ‘social exclusion’ (1990s onwards). 

For further information on HIST277 visit the Lancaster University Online Courses Handbook.

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