Who is The London Poor from London Labour and the London Poor and what is their importance?

This book profiles the lives of the poor workers and vagrants of London. Most of the book deals with the characteristics of groups of people by occupation, rather than in-depth profiles of any one person. This technique, of using a little evidence to arrive at sweeping generalizations and draw broad conclusions, was much more common in Mayhew's time than it is today. Where a journalist of today would present a compelling word portrait of a specific individual to illustrate the problem, Mayhew relied on generalities. For this reason, there are few specific individuals to reference. Even when a brief profile of a specific individual is given, he or she is unnamed.