Rights statement: © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2015
Accepted author manuscript, 410 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - "Mrs Harvey came home from Norwich ... her pocket picked at the station and all her money stolen”
T2 - using life writing to recover the experience of travel in the past
AU - Pooley, Colin
AU - Pooley, Marilyn
N1 - © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2015
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - In most societies the ability to move easily from place to place is a taken-for-granted aspect of twenty-first century life, but much less is known about such mobility in the past with a tendency for accounts to focus on the exceptional rather than the routine. In this paper we use two personal diaries written in England in the mid-nineteenth century and early-twentieth centuries to explore the ways in which everyday mobility was accomplished in the past. Attention is focused on the ease with which people could move around, the variety of modes of transport used, the enjoyment that travel generated, and the difficulties that were encountered. It is concluded that frequent everyday mobility was commonplace and mostly unproblematic, and was as closely enmeshed with society and economy as is the case in the twenty-first century. Such mobility also facilitated residential migration by providing knowledge about potential locations.
AB - In most societies the ability to move easily from place to place is a taken-for-granted aspect of twenty-first century life, but much less is known about such mobility in the past with a tendency for accounts to focus on the exceptional rather than the routine. In this paper we use two personal diaries written in England in the mid-nineteenth century and early-twentieth centuries to explore the ways in which everyday mobility was accomplished in the past. Attention is focused on the ease with which people could move around, the variety of modes of transport used, the enjoyment that travel generated, and the difficulties that were encountered. It is concluded that frequent everyday mobility was commonplace and mostly unproblematic, and was as closely enmeshed with society and economy as is the case in the twenty-first century. Such mobility also facilitated residential migration by providing knowledge about potential locations.
KW - Mobility
KW - Everyday life
KW - Diaries
KW - England
KW - Nineteenth Century
KW - Twentieth Century
U2 - 10.1163/23519924-00101004
DO - 10.1163/23519924-00101004
M3 - Journal article
VL - 1
SP - 54
EP - 74
JO - Journal of Migration History
JF - Journal of Migration History
IS - 1
ER -