Literature and Religion in Mid-Victorian England - From Dickens to Eliot

This book places Dickens and Wilkie Collins against such important figures as John Henry Newman and George Eliot inseeking to recover their response to the religious controversies of mid-nineteenth century England. While much recent criticism has tended to overlook or dismiss their religious pronouncements, this book foregrounds the religious aspect of their writing and relocates their most important work in the context of contemporary debate. The response of both writers is seen to be complex and fraught with tension.

Perfection, the State and Victorian Liberalism

Challenging a modern culture of skepticism, this book recovers the core conviction of Victorian liberal theory that human beings, with the help of the state, can achieve an objective moral perfection. Exposing century-long interpretive habits in nineteenth-century studies and political theory that still blind us to the merits of both perfectionism and statism, the book portrays Victorian liberals like John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, and the American Transcendentalists as comprising a forgotten episode in the history of liberalism of vital importance today

Hatred and Civility - The Antisocial Life in Victorian England

To understand hatred today, start with the Victorians. This book explores the depths of loathing in Victorian fiction and society, highlighting numerous cultural contradictions. It shows that the fanatics and terrorists troubling us in the 21st century have many precursors in our supposedly moral ancestors.

Gone to the Shops - Shopping in Victorian England

This book will help modern readers envision the Victorian shopping experience by taking them inside the shops and up to the counters. Readers will learn how the shop was organized, what services and goods were available, and how goods made their way from the shop to the home. Graham's compelling account provides a vivid glimpse into a vital ”but largely unappreciated” aspect of Victorian life.

Conceiving Companies - Joint-Stock Politics in Victorian England

Questions concerning the relationships and boundaries between 'private' business and 'public' government are of great and perennial concern to economists, economic and business historians, political scientists and historians.Conceiving Companies discusses the birth and development of joint-stock companies in 19th century England, an area of great importance to the history of this subject. Alborn takes a new approach to the rise of large scale companies in Victorian England, including the Bank of England and East India Company and Victorian railways, locating their origins in political and social practice.