Michael Dunlop Young (1915–2002)

This study provides a detailed desription of the structure of relationships and behaviour of the close-family communities of the working class in Bethnal Green in the East End of London, and the changes in these following their migration and fragmentation across to a newly built housing estate in Essex. Though a study of a particular group, patterns can be drawn common to communities across the UK and further afield.
We begin with a description of how the families in East London have lived in the preceding decades, the inter-family relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, husbands and mothers-in-law, wives and mothers-in-law, and mothers and daughters, as well as between the wider family. From the point of view of an anthropologist, we learn the behaviours common to these relationships, the centring of families around the mothers, and the ties and conflicts that typically occur. There is also note of traditions and folk beliefs, and their parallels in other societies. In part two of the book, we find out how the ties of kinship are stretched as many of the residents move out of Bethnal Green to a new development. We hear about the effect on the wider family and structure of the community, and how this in turn feeds back to produce changes in the behaviour of individuals.
This book is mainly based on research carried out by the authors in East London, consisting of surveys and interviews. The topics covered are relatively comprehensive, and provide a good picture of this society, and the changes these have undergone in response to external pressures of the economy, housing availability, and wider social changes. The interviews quoted are frequently revealing and candid, and quite often amusing.
Overall this is a very easy and enjoyable book to read, with a lot of keen observation on the part of the authors, and plenty of humour. As a picture of a broad traditional community that has now changed, it is a valuable record for the historian, the sociologist, the anthropologist, and the general reader with an interest in social history.… (mais)