This landmark book charts the roller coaster history of both rich and poor, and the mechanisms that link them. Stewart Lansley examines the
ideological rifts that have driven society back to the divisions of the past and asks why rich and poor citizens are still judged by very different standards.
For 200 years, Britain’s most powerful elites have been allowed to enrich themselves at the expense of surging inequality and mass poverty. This landmark book charts the roller coaster history of both rich and poor, and the mechanisms that link wealth and impoverishment.
Stewart Lansley traces the way financiers and executives have ruthlessly exploited their power to extract existing wealth at the cost of livelihoods and social resilience. He examines the bitter ideological rifts that have driven society back to the extreme divisions of the past. Why, he asks, are rich and poor citizens judged by very different standards, and why is the long ‘cycle of privilege’ as embedded today as a century earlier?
Introduction: Knighthoods for the rich, penalties for the poor Part 1: 1800-1939 1. Hierarchical discipline 2. Britain’s gilded age 3. Public penury and private ostentation 4. A roller-coaster ride Part 2: 1940-59 5. The future belongs to us 6. Britain’s ‘New Deal' 7. Brave new world 8. A shallow consensus Part 3: 1960-79 9. The rediscovery of poverty 10. Poorer under Labour 11. Consolidation or advance? 12. Peak equality Part 4: 1980-96 13. Don’t mention the 'p' word 14. Zapping Labour 15. The dark shadow of the Poor Law 16. The great widening 17. Money worship Part 5: 1997-2010 18. The elephant in the room 19. Still born to rule 20. I'm not Mother Teresa 21. The house of cards 22. The good, the bad and the ugly Part 6: 2011-20 23. Divide and rule: playing politics with poverty 24. A leaner state 25. Burning injustice 26. Growing rich in their sleep 27. The high-inequality, high-poverty cycle Afterword: COVID-19 and 'the polo season'
Stewart Lansley is a visiting fellow in the School of Policy Studies, the University of Bristol, a Council member of the Progressive Economy Forum and a Research Associate at the Compass think-tank. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and has written widely on poverty, wealth and inequality. His recent books include A Sharing Economy (2016), Breadline Britain, The Rise of Mass Poverty (with Joanna Mack, 2015) and The Cost of Inequality (2011).
Reviews for The Richer, The Poorer: How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor. A 200-Year History
This book is a resource that can help us make up our own minds about extremes of wealth and poverty, privilege and want, instead of being encouraged to 'other' welfare claimants and kid ourselves we share the interests of the profiteering one per cent. We should arm ourselves with it in all our anti-poverty struggles. Cost of Living
