Choice Review

Doughty has brought together four quite different essays on urban geography that deal with the building industry for working-class housing. Topics include the structure of the building industry and the availability of labor and materials; the sources of finance for house building; the impact of landowner attempts to control the types of structures built on their land; and, finally, the effects of building regulations. Thomas Roberts contributes an essay on the considerable Welsh influence on the building industry in Liverpool, which was shaped somewhat by Welsh Methodism. The broadest of the four essays is by Richard Rodger on the Scottish building industry and working class housing. Real wages for Scottish workers were much lower and unusual land tenure laws discouraged real estate development. The result was often poor housing characterized by overcrowded tenements, a condition grimmer than that in England. Doughty has provided a substantial introduction to place the essays into their historiographical context. Graduate readership.-P.T. Smith, Saint Joseph's University