Books by Proffessor John Burnett

Idle Hands focuses on the experiences of working people in becoming unemployed, coping with unemployment and searching for work, and their reactions and responses to their problems.

Liquid Pleasures is an engrossing study of the social history of drinks in Britain from the late 17th century to the present. Connecting drinks and related substances to empire as well, the book also covers the drinks revolution of the 1990s.

What did Queen Victoria have for dinner? And how did this compare with the meals of the poor in the 19th century? This account of English eating habits since the Industrial Revolution answers these questions and more.

Companion text to "Useful Toil", this book is based on previously unpublished manuscripts. It provides a record of childhood that reveals in intimate detail the trials and hard-won triumphs of 19th-century working-class life.

Focusing on the "ordinary" people of the 19th century, this book comprises 27 extracts from the diaries and autobiographies of working people. These tell of their working experiences, as well as their hopes and their fears, and reveal the essence of their attitudes, values and beliefs.