Description
'I feel' declared Lord Shaftesbury, 'that my business lies in the gutter, and I have not the least intention to get out of it.'
Shaftesbury's long career was largely devoted to relieving the condition of the destitute of Victorian England. Yet just as his many other achievements have been overshadowed by his work on behalf of the oppressed, so the complexity of his motives and personality has been hidden by the popular legend of a simple, genial, pious and soft-hearted philanthropist.
Professor Best shows that Shaftesbury's championing of reform and his share in the foundation of the public health service were no less important than his many-sided success in rescuing the poor from the wretched living and working conditions which accompanied the industrial revolution. More, he is particularly successful in revealing the qualities in Shaftesbury which made his contemporaries overlook the self-righteousness, violence and suspicion that were also part of the character of this devout, conservative aristocrat who has, more than any other figure in British public life, inspired compassion for the unfortunate and rejected.
ISBN:450022579
