The unknown E P Thompson?
In 1971 E P Thompson and Eileen Yeo published The Unknown Mayhew (Penguin) which contained a considerable amount of material from Henry Mayhew’s social investigations published in the Morning Chronicle between 1849 and 1851.
Both Thompson and Yeo wrote introductions.
Thompson’s extended piece looks at the life of Mayhew and his politics and seems to have been largely forgotten. At the back of the book there are also several pages detailing the cost of living in the first half of the nineteenth century. They were written by Thompson and seem to continue a discussion he started in the Making of the English Working Class in 1963 about whether the standard of living for workers were rising or falling in this period.
The book was originally published by Merlin Press and republished by Penguin, the most recent addition dates from 1984.
The paperback copy I consulted in the British Library on 17th February was falling apart but as the librarian noted there is backlog of binding work. Perhaps its time for the book to be published again. Mayhew’s investigations into the state of market capitalism in 1850 (and Thompsons and Yeos commentaries on them) are interesting historically but also have contemporary relevance.
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