ABSTRACT
A good understanding of the major events and ensuing debates of the period will enable teachers to spot cultural, historical and ideological references in texts with more ease, and allow teachers to draw inferences and meaning from them that they may otherwise have missed. The call for reform started in the eighteenth century, with the French Revolution triggering a desire for change across Europe. After the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was much dissent amongst the working classes, who had been hit badly by rising unemployment, famine and the introduction of the Corn Laws, which raised the price of food by restricting imports to benefit British producers. Ireland dominated the political scene for much of the latter nineteenth century, but continual infighting and blocking of bills by the House of Lords meant that Home Rule was not passed until 1920, and remains a contentious issue today.
