Kerry's Reviews > Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth-Century to Modern Times

Book review by Margaret Flanagan
"In addition to relating a treasure trove of
fascinating—and often dismaying—stories
about the haves and have-nots who occupied
the same households, she also analyzes how
the disruption of archaic social, political,
and economic systems by two world wars led
to a seismic shift in values and practical realities,
dealing a long-overdue deathblow to a
moribund profession."
Book review by Edward Higgs
"The overarching argument that service was in its heyday in Edwardian Britain and was undermined by the social changes during the wars of the twentieth century is probably wrong. As the British census shows, the zenith of domestic service was actually 1871, and the decline thereafter was reflected in the increasing middle‐class complaints about “the Servant Problem” in late Victorian and Edwardian England. This probably had more to do with the disappearance of the rural population from which “biddable” servants could be recruited. Nor can the book be said to cover Britain as a whole or all servants. The most common servant, the lowly maid‐of‐all‐work, is hardly mentioned whilst the butler gets a whole chapter, and the servants of the industrial North, Wales, and Scotland are largely absent.
Though this book is an excellent evocation of an age and a good source of quotes, it is not a replacement for books such as Pamela Horn's The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant."

I am always fascinated by this topic and have read several books about it. Thanks for reviewing this one.