| Description |
xi, 283 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. Themes and Interpretations: An Overview of British Society, 1870-1914. I. Continuity and change. II. The impact of Empire. III. The emergence of class. IV. Individualism and collectivism. V. From 'Ancient Constitution' to 'Great Society'. VI. The nationalization of culture. VII. Sex and Gender. VIII. 'Modernity' and the 'lost domain'. IX. Paradox and plurality. X. Victorians and Edwardians -- 2. Demography, Death, and Disease. I. People and cities. II. Patterns of fertility. III. Patterns of mortality. IV. Society, sickness, and medicine -- 3. Family and Household. I. The 'Victorian' family. II. Family size and structure. III. Domestic economy. IV. Patriarchalism. V. Motherhood. VI. Childhood. VII. Sexual relations. VIII. Family life -- 4. Property. I. Perceptions of property. II. The distribution of property. III. Aristocratic property. IV. Middle-class property. V. Working-class property. VI. Property and politics -- 5. Work. I. Work and gentility. II. Structure, skill, and organization |
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III. Alienation, leisure, and the work ethic. IV. Industrial relations. V. Work and the 'working class'. VI. Culture and context -- 6. Religion. I. The issue of 'secularization'. II. The sociology of church attendance. III. The churches and civic culture. IV. The structure of belief. V. Religion and society -- 7. Society and the State. I. The social bases of the state. II. The mid-Victorian state. III. Changing political culture. IV. Contraction and expansion. V. Finance, bureaucracy, and social policy. VI. Crime, law, and police. VII. Ambiguities of power -- 8. Society and Social Theory. I. The problem of 'society'. II. Atomism, organicism, and social evolution. III. Historicism and idealism. IV. Social theory and the 'social problem'. V. The language of race. VI. Perceptions of poverty. VII. Decay and degeneration. VIII. Society, liberty, and character: Echoes of Greece and Rome |
| Summary |
"This is a lively and original new study of the social history of Britain between 1870 and 1914. Jose Harris surveys and reinterprets many themes: demography and disease, work and religion, social reform and social theory, feminism and family life. The period was marked by the co-existence of many trends and principles often believed to be mutually exclusive. Dr Harris vividly conveys a sense of the diversity which characterized the age, and reveals the doubts and ambivalencies of contemporaries. She shows that in many respects Great Britain at this period was a ramshackle and amorphous society, characterized by a myriad of contradictory opinions, at every level from parish pump to empire." "Private Lives, Public Spirit suggests that many 'Victorians' and 'Edwardians' were remarkably different from their modern stereotypes, and that much of what are now thought of as quintessentially 'Victorian values' stemmed less from traditional ideas and structures than from 'progressive' reformist movements of the very end of Victoria's reign. It is a readable and compelling depiction of Britain during the watershed period before the First World War: a period whose characteristic ideas and structures did not vanish with the war but survived with great tenacity over the next half-century."--Jacket |
| Analysis |
Great Britain |
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Social conditions History, 1837-1914 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-276) and index |
| SUBJECT |
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056943
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Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 20th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056944
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| LC no. |
92046507 |
| ISBN |
0140125485 |
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0198204124 |
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9780140125481 |
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9780198204121 |
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