ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the next subsequent chapter. The part discusses the popular participation in the Great Exhibition, an event that has long been seen as emblematic of the new harmony. It shows that there was a marked interest in the exhibition by many of those whose political agitation had contributed to the turbulence of earlier years. The part reveals an extensive geographical spread, involving men and women, of the ideology of industrialism, and which gives credence to the idea of a populist infrastructure of 'steam intellect' ferment that explains enthusiasm for the Exhibition. It exposes the contradictions inscribed in the emergence of a new form of financial irregularity occasioned by the boom in railways. The part looks at the continuing presence of Golden Age thinking in that part of the economy whose peak was experienced at a time when other parts were in relative decline.
