Defining the Victorian Nation: Class, Race, Gender and the British Reform Act of 1867
Cambridge University Press, 11/18/2010
EAN 9780521576536, ISBN10: 0521576539
Paperback, 320 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English
Defining the Victorian Nation offers a fresh perspective on one of the most significant pieces of legislation in nineteenth-century Britain. Catherine Hall, Keith McClelland and Jane Rendall demonstrate that the Second Reform Act of 1867 was marked not only by extensive controversy about the extension of the vote, but also by new concepts of masculinity and the masculine voter, the beginnings of the movement for women's suffrage, and a parallel debate about the meanings and forms of national belonging. The chapters in this book draw on recent developments in cultural, social and gender history, broadening the study of nineteenth-century British political history and integrating questions of nation and empire. Fascinating illustrations illuminate the argument, and a detailed chronology, biographical notes and selected bibliography offer further support to the student reader. Students and scholars in history, women's studies, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies will find this book invaluable.
Preface
Chronology
Introduction
1. England's greatness, the working man
2. The citizenship of women and the Reform Act of 1867
3. The nation within and without
Appendix
voting qualifications, reform proposals, and the effects of electoral reform 1832–1868
Cast of characters
Bibliography.
'... a wonderfully useful little book, one that deserves a central place on the bookshelves and syllabi of historians of nineteenth-century British politics.' History Workshop Journal