The Victorians since 1901 Histories, Representations and Revisions

by Taylor, Miles; Wolff, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780719067259
• ISBN10: 0719067251
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-22
• Publisher: MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

Over a century after the death of Queen Victoria, historians are busy re-appraising her age and achievements. However, our understanding of the Victorian era is itself a part of history, shaped by changing political, cultural and intellectual fashions. Bringing together a group of international scholars from the disciplines of history, English literature, art history and cultural studies, this book identifies and assesses the principal influences on twentieth-century attitudes towards the Victorians. Developments in academia, popular culture, public history and the internet are covered in this important and stimulating collection, and the final chapters anticipate future global trends in interpretations of the Victorian era, making an essential volume for students of Victorian Studies.

Author Biography

Miles Taylor is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Southampton.

Michael Wolff is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii
Preface	x
Michael Wolff
Introduction	1	(16)
Miles Taylor
Part I Histories
Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians: the rise and fall of the intellectual aristocracy	17	(12)
William C. Lubenow
The bleak age: J. H. Clapham, the Hammonds and the standard of living in Victorian Britain	29	(15)
Stewart Weaver
Victorian prime ministers: changing patterns of commemoration	44	(15)
Michael Bentley
Quiller-Couch, the function of Victorian literature and modernism, 1890--1930	59	(18)
Michelle Hawley
G. M. Young and the early Victorian revival	77	(13)
Miles Taylor
Culture or society? Victorian studies, 1951--64	90	(17)
Martin Hewitt
Part II Representations
Industrialisation and catastrophe: the Victorian economy in British film documentary, 1930-50	107	(14)
Timothy Boon
The revival of interest in Victorian decorative art and the Victoria and Albert Museum	121	(17)
Anthony Burton
`No glorious assurance': the 1951 Festival of Britain looks at the Victorian past	138	(12)
Becky E. Conekin
The BBC and the Victorians	150	(17)
James Thompson
Theme-park Victoriana	167	(14)
John Gardiner
The Victorians at school: the Victorian era in the twentieth-century curriculum	181	(20)
Eric Evans
Part III Revisions
Victorian studies in the digital age	201	(14)
Patrick Leary
Victorian studies in North America	215	(15)
Christopher Kent
The state of Victorian studies in Australia and New Zealand	230	(14)
Miles Fairburn
Victorian studies in the UK	244	(16)
Helen Rogers
Timeline of Victorian studies, 1901--2002	260	(25)
Index	285