- Title:
- The homeless and reformers: negotiating progress in the upper streets of Halifax, 1890-1914
- Creator:
- Hood, David
- Date Created:
- 2008
- Degree Awarded:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Subjects:
- Poor Nova Scotia Halifax Homeless persons Nova Scotia Halifax Public welfare Nova Scotia Social problems Nova Scotia Halifax History
- Geographical Focus:
- Canada Nova Scotia Halifax
- Supporting Materials:
- n/a
- Description:
- The extremely poor have often been cast as deviants or others, in both the past and the present. Historians of Atlantic Canada have used the idea of deviance as an acceptable approach to the poor and homeless of the past and tacitly encourage us to see the contemporary homeless as deviants. Victorian theorists such as Malthus and Mayhew pejoratively characterized the poor as an underclass. Contemporary writers have provided evidence that challenges the use of the concept in Canada. But it remains a powerful force within American sociology, which is able to cast its influence over Canadian historical writing. It is the contention of this research that it is possible to be true to the past, to reflect the warts and downfalls of the extremely poor and homeless who lived there, but at the same time recognize their efforts to follow prevailing norms and to empathize with their plight and in doing so generate at least the possibility of recognition and empathy in the present. Such recognition and empathy may be the keys to creating and maintaining humane solutions to poverty and homelessness. The examinations conducted by this research address an area of our past that has been largely overlooked. This research supplements broad historical surveys of social welfare legislation by examining social welfare policy in action at the local level. By positioning itself at the convergence of labour history and studies of poverty, and by demonstrating that the populations examined by these discrete areas of research are more alike than different, this research shows that labour history can be extended to include many of those who lived “rough” in the past. Through its approach this ii e A e research hopes to encourage a view that can help to integrate the study of extreme poverty and homelessness into the mainstream of Canadian historiography.
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- Hood, David. 2008. "The homeless and reformers: negotiating progress in the upper streets of Halifax, 1890-1914", Department of History, Carleton University
- Link to this page:
- https://cuhistory.github.io/grads/items/hist_128.html
Rights
- Rights:
- Copyright the author, all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.