Heathen England, and What to Do for It : Being a Description of the Utterly Godless Condition of the Vast Majority of the English Nation (Cambridge Library Collection - British and Irish History, 19th Century)

This book, published in 1877, describes both the 'utterly Godless condition of the vast majority of the English nation' and the activities of William Booth (not yet famous as the founder of the Salvation Army, first named in 1878) at the Whitechapel Christian Mission, where he had been working since 1865. It is not clear whether Booth (1829–1912) actually wrote this book: the preface is signed by 'Geo. R.', and Booth is referred to in the third person, but it is conventionally ascribed to him and certainly echoes his own beliefs. (Booth's more famous 1890 work, In Darkest England and the Way Out (also reissued in this series) was ghostwritten by journalist W.T. Stead.) Using anecdotes from Whitechapel, the book claims that the British urban working classes are in more urgent need of Christian help and education, on the model provided by Booth, than any so-called pagan society overseas.