John Burnett (historian)


John Burnett was a social historian who was a professor at Brunel University between 1972 and 1990. His research examined the day-to-day lives of ordinary British people in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Originally from Nottingham, he studied at High Pavement School, and then read history and law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, then law at the University of London. He taught at Guildford Technical College and Borough Polytechnic before reading for a PhD in history at the London School of Economics.
The Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiography, housed at Brunel University and containing over 230 autobiographies, was compiled by Burnett, David Vincent and David Mayall. Burnett, Vincent and Myall co-edited The Autobiography of the Working Class, in three volumes, based on their work on the archive.

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