A Disappearing world: case studies in class, gender and memory

'A Disappearing World' offers a fascinating glimpse of class and gender relations in two working-class communities in the second half of the 20th century. Drawing on the life histories of fourteen individuals, Ian Watson explores themes of working-class culture, gender and work. He also examines what memory means for personal and social identity. Direct quotations from interviews provide a rich and powerful testimony to the dignity of working-class life in Australia. At the same time, they illustrate the physical hardship of manual labour, the violence of patriarchal family life, and the lost potential that accompanied class and gender oppression. While many of these elements endure in contemporary Australia, others belong to a disappearing world.