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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Thinking Allowed: 03/03/2010

03/03/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed, 03/03/2010

The secret history of the servant and the working class at Oxbridge.

The servant's story is a hidden history. Laurie Taylor discusses new research on the experience of servitude in the 18th century. Also, the working class at elite universities.

Fetching water, cleaning knives, shovelling out a privy, setting fires - how did servants make sense of the tough menial duties in the 18th-century home? During that time they made up the largest occupational group in the British state, and the historian Caroline Steedman argues that servants' resentments and personal philosophies had a huge impact on the development of the English character and the British nation state. Laurie Taylor discusses a neglected corner of social history with Caroline Steedman and Amanda Vickery.

Laurie also hears about the working class at Britain's elite universities; Diane Reay tells him about her research into state-educated working-class children studying at Oxbridge.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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03/03/2010

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