About Us

Academic Editors

Thank you to our academic editors, Martin Hewitt and Susie Steinbach, for all of their support and guidance in creating Routledge Historical Resources: 19^th Century British Society.

Publisher

Rachel Douglas (Editor, Routledge Historical Resources)

Alyson Claffey (Development Editor)

Images

The images in the gallery were kindly donated from the personal collection of Martin Hewitt (Anglia Ruskin University).

Other images on the site are from Mary Evans Picture Library, the British Library’s open access collection, the London School of Economics open access collection and the National Archives.

 

A short commentary from editor Susie Steinbach on the influence of 19th century British society to 21st Century British society. 

While the study of nineteenth-century Britain is not as popular right now as it has been with undergraduate and graduate students, it still has a lot to teach those of us living in the twenty-first century.

In the nineteenth century, Britain was the most powerful nation in the world and ruled a vast empire from which it made enormous profits, controlled the lives of millions of people and influenced many parts of the world in a less formal political way. But this status was also threatened. Colonial states and subjects frequently resisted and revolted against British control. The imperial ambitions of other major powers threatened those of Britain. The United States and Germany were serious economic and industrial competitors. Britain would lose both its empire and its standing over the next century. The comparisons to Britain in the age of Brexit are compelling. So too are the comparisons to the United States today (which many would characterize as an imperial power, informally if not formally).

Nineteenth-century British society faced many of the same debates and problems we face today. were seen by most white Britons as inferior; the same was true of non-Christians. Queer (LGBTQ+) people were widely persecuted and prosecuted and were made by both state and society to feel unsafe. The gap between the rich and the poor seemed to be widening every day, and no one knew what to do about it. Most people believed that happy families and cozy domestic spaces were central to happiness and to morality, and commentators worried about the moral state of working-class and poor families. Police forces were growing, and everyone seemed to have an opinion on crime, police, and prisons. Some people trusted medical doctors; others preferred alternative medicines. Not everyone trusted vaccines and outbreaks of typhoid, smallpox, scarlet fever, and cholera put public health in the spotlight.

Nineteenth-century British society underwent rapid changes, a lot like those we are experiencing today. New technologies in print culture meant that texts and images of all kinds—news, novels, stories, songs, advice, gossip, comics, jokes, games, and more—were widely available and increasingly affordable. The growth of the railway system meant that trips that once took days now took hours. Suburbs, day trips to the countryside and weeks at the seashore were now possible. The penny post made letters across town or across the country faster, easier, and cheaper. As Britain and its inhabitants became more prosperous, consumer culture flourished: more people could buy ‘extras’–clothing, accessories, home furnishings–than ever before. There were more leisure options too: people could spend the evening at the pub or the club, at the music hall or a dance hall, at a pleasure garden or a park.

So much of nineteenth-century society and culture, both good and bad, resonates with our lives and experiences and those of our students. This Routledge Historical Resource aims to give students the opportunity explore these connections as they craft their own interpretations of the past.