History and Archaeology guest lecture: Dr Brodie Waddell

How did working people use writing in their struggles to survive and prosper? The ever-present threat of individual economic failure or regional commercial collapse spurred many to record, reflect or complain in a wide variety of textual genres. This paper will survey how they used several distinctive strategies are examined: selling writing skills; private written meditation; individual petitions for relief; collective complaint; and communal organisation.

Taken together, these examples offer a new perspective on the value of writing to workers. Although their texts were diverse and never entirely instrumentalist, they all had the potential to serve as a practical tool in their constant efforts to deal with the ‘want of worke’ and other economic threats.

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