Victorian People

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Victorian People: A Reassessment of Persons and Themes, 1851-1867 is a book by the historian Asa Briggs originally published in 1955. It is part of a trilogy that also incorporates Victorian Cities and Victorian Things . [1]

Contents

Content

Briggs's analysis spans a relatively short part of the Victorian era, encompassing the period between the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the passage of the Second Reform Act of 1867. In particular he focuses upon the involvement of key individuals in the policies and cultural developments of the time. [2] He argues that the period in question was one that had traditionally suffered from a lack of historical scholarship and was interesting in its own right, being the high-Victorian stage marked by a focus upon 'thought', 'work' and 'progress' and a belief in British institutions after the negotiation of the cataclysms and challenges of 1848. [3]

Great Exhibition

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations or The Great Exhibition, an international exhibition, took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851. It was the first in a series of World's Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that became popular in the 19th century, and it was a much anticipated event. The Great Exhibition was organized by Henry Cole and by Prince Albert, husband of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria. Famous people of the time attended, including Charles Darwin, Samuel Colt, members of the Orléanist Royal Family and the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson and William Makepeace Thackeray.

The chapters are as follows:

  1. Introduction
  2. The Crystal Palace and the Men of 1851
  3. John Arthur Roebuck and the Crimean War
  4. Trollope, Bagehot, and the English Constitution
  5. Samuel Smiles and the Gospel of Work
  6. Thomas Hughes and the Public Schools
  7. Robert Applegarth and the Trade-Unions
  8. John Bright and the Creed of Reform
  9. Robert Lowe and the Fear of Democracy
  10. Benjamin Disraeli and the Leap in the Dark
  11. Epilogue

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References

  1. Jones, Nigel. "Special Relationships: People and Places by Asa Briggs – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  2. "Victorian People". The University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  3. Briggs, Asa (1975). Victorian People: A Reassessment of Persons and Themes, 1851-67. University of Chicago Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN   0226074889 . Retrieved 13 July 2014.
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