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Five Hundred Years of Friendship

Five Hundred Years of Friendship: Felons and Oddfellows

Felons and Oddfellows

BBC Radio 4 - Five Hundred Years of Friendship, Felons and Oddfellows

Dr Thomas Dixon explores friendship and self-help among the 19th-century poor.

Friendship and self-help among the 19th-century poor. Dr Thomas Dixon's history of the evolution of friendship. From March 2014.

As the nature and depth of our friendships comes under scrutiny in an era of Social Networking, a timely history of friendship over the centuries.

Dr Thomas Dixon traces the idea of friendship as a form of practical self-help back to the Friendly Societies of the 18th and 19th centuries. At their peak, there were 9000 of these grass-roots institutions - many with quaint, archaic names, such as The Manchester Unity of Oddfellows - and it is estimated that 40% of the adult male population belonged to one - mobilising the power of friendship in a sort of forerunner of the Welfare State.

The importance of the idea of friendship emerges through the colourful vocabulary of friendship in the period - from cronies, trumps and bloaters to culliles, marrows and rib-stones, and the more familiar, chums and pals. 

With contributions from Dr Helen Rogers and Professor Hugh Cunningham.

Producer: Beaty Rubens

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2014.

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A history of the changing meaning of friendship over the centuries.

Dr Thomas Dixon presents a history of the changing meaning of friendship over the centuries.

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