FRIENDSHIP, TRUST, AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE IN POOR WORKING-CLASS BRITAIN
This paper looks at the political importance of friendships between religious and charitable visitors to poor working-class homes, and those they befriended there, in late 19 th and early 20 th century urban Britain. It argues that these relationships, in combination with a limited engagement by poorer working-class voters with Liberal and Conservative politicians and policies, and also a lack of intimate neighbourhood ties, may have significantly affected political behaviour and outcomes. This paper has been peer-reviewed.