It is a path-breaking study based on personal and statistical inquiry: in it Booth used a variety of methods to seek out and describe the condition of life of the people of the metropolis. He exploited the resources at his disposal – the census; the expertise of school board visitors and clergymen, teachers and councillors, policemen and overseers; the evidence of his own and his associates’ eyes and ears – to their utmost. Quite apart from the intrinsic worth of his observations about metropolitan London, the three series represent a breakthrough in the techniques and practice of social investigation. (via Retrieved Riches - Charles Booth’s Life and Labour of the People in London | History Today)
