The Making of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain, 1789-1837Ben Wilson's The Making of Victorian Valuesis the history of an era rather like our own-a time when dissenters and rebels were hemmed in by conformists and hardheaded authoritarians, a time when a nation on the eve of global domination fretted about its future. It was, however, a period when those who argued that a British empire would be a disaster for liberty were eventually squashed by imperialists, just as those who railed against mindless materialism were in the end rolled over by industrialists and the promoters of luxury goods. The Making of Victorian Valuesreveals an era when people were obsessed with the need to appear authentic, and yet forever had doubts about who was and who wasn't-concerns familiar to the "me" age we know so well. Wilson begins with the libertine spirit inspired by Byron, Shelley, and the Romantics; he ends with the rise and eventual victory of stolid middle-class values. The result is a radical tour de force, a brilliant reworking of the pre-Victorian age. Once portrayed by Paul Johnson in his bestselling The Birth of the Modernas the years when virtue finally trumped corruption, Wilson reveals a far more compelling story-and a more engrossing and scandalous one, too. It is a story about hypochondriacs and cranks, killjoys and dandies, rakes and priests, advocates of free-speech and those against it-people who were made awe struck by Britain's emerging role as the economic and political powerhouse of the world, but who were also deeply anxious about the responsibilities a vast empire might require. Wilson is heir to the great radical historians of the twentieth century, E. J. Hobsbawm and E. P. Thompson, among them. He brushes aside scholarly politesse and refuses to join in unnecessary academic point-settling, and his invigorating literary abilities will win many admirers who would otherwise know this history only through the works of nineteenth-century fiction. |
Contents
Untaught Feelings | 1 |
HYPOCHONDRIA 17891815 | 23 |
Introduction to Part One | 25 |
SINKING SINKING SINKING | 37 |
DRUNK ON LIBERTY | 66 |
RESOLUTE DEBAUCHES | 91 |
REFORMING SAINTS | 117 |
TOO STRONG FOR LAW | 140 |
ACADEMIES OF VICE | 243 |
RICH AND RESPECTABLE 18211837 | 271 |
Introduction to Part Three | 273 |
BYRONED | 284 |
PROGRESS | 307 |
MERRY ENGLAND | 336 |
NO CANT | 362 |
Acknowledgements | 390 |
Other editions - View all
The Making of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain: 1789-1837 Ben Wilson Limited preview - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
appearance asked became become beer beggars behavior believed better Britain British Byron called cant century character classes Colquhoun committee common conduct crime customs dangerous drink early England English evangelical fashion fear feelings force Francis friends give habits hand human hypocrisy John kind knew labor Lady laws less lives London look Lord lower magistrates manners means middle classes mind moral nature nervous never night Observations officers orders Paget parish person Place pleasure police political poor popular present prison progress prostitutes punishment reform religious respectable Review rich seemed seen showed social society spirit streets theater thing Thomas thought thousand took trade turn vice virtue wanted wealth women wrote young