West End Chapel, Back Street Bethel: Labour and Capital in the Wigan Churches of Christ c. 1845–1945
- 1 April 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History
- Vol. 47 (2) , 298-329
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022046900080027
Abstract
There is a large and complex literature regarding the part played by working-class Nonconformity in the industrial revolution and the emergence of the English labour movement. For all its nuances, this writing can be separated into two main strands. The first, broadly Marxist, perspective sees working-class Nonconformity primarily as a form of capitalist control, inculcating bourgeois norms of hard work, thrift, respectability and political moderation into the working class. However, even labour historians who subscribe to this view cannot help but be struck by the ubiquitous accounts of lay preachers at the forefront of Victorian labour movement campaigns, especially in the coalfields. Thus, the second view stresses the part played by working-class Nonconformists in leading their class towards political and industrial emancipation. To a considerable extent, the stance taken, particularly on Methodism, depends on whether writers draw their evidence from national, usually middle-class, denominational hierarchies, or from local accounts of working-class religiosity.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Religion and the Working Class in Nineteenth-Century Britain.The Economic History Review, 1985
- On History, Sociology and Historical RelevanceBritish Journal of Sociology, 1976
- The Churches of Christ in Britain: A Study in Nineteenth‐Century SectarianismJournal of Religious History, 1974
- Pit-Men, Preachers & PoliticsPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1974
- The Lancashire and Cheshire Miners.The Economic History Review, 1973