"The Dawn of the Cheap Press" provides the first detailed study of the mid-Victorian campaign for the repeal of the taxes on knowledge for over a hundred years. Using the recently discovered papers of the Association for the Promotion of the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge and taking advantage of new forms of research made possible by the digitisation of nineteenth century newspapers, it assesses the impact of the removal of the last surviving legal disabilities on the newspaper industry, the nature of journalism, and the cultures and practices of newspaper reading. The book demonstrates that the campaign against the taxes on knowledge retained broad popular appeal, and played an important role in the politics of mid-Victorian budgets. It not only makes a seminal contribution to the history of the nineteenth century press and print culture, but also illuminates the culture and politics of mid-Victorian Britain, offers an important re-reading of the history of extra-parliamentary pressure group politics and provides new insights into the origins of Gladstonian Liberalism.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Victorian period may have come to an end over 120 years ago, but the Victorians continue to be a vital presence in the modern world. Contemporary Britain is still in large part Victorian in its transport networks, sewage systems, streets, and houses. Victorian cultural legacies, especially in art, science, and literature, are still celebrated. The first to have to grapple with many of the challenges of modern urban society, we continue to look to the Victorians for inspiration and solace. And we are increasingly aware of the ways their global actions shaped, often for ill, the world around us. Much mythologised, inexhaustibly controversial, the Victorians are an inescapable reference point for understanding the modern histories not just of Britain and its empire, but of the world. In The Victorians: A Very Short Introduction Martin Hewitt offers a guide through the thickets of judgement and debate which have grown around the period and its people, to offer a historical overview of the Victorians and their legacies. He seeks to answer five crucial questions. Why have the Victorians continued occupy such a prominent place in the cultures of not just the anglophone world? How far does it make sense to think of a 64-year period arbitrarily given an identity by the longevity of the Queen as an identifiable historical period in a general sense? How justified are the value-laden versions of the Victorians which argue for the existence of a particular world view called 'Victorianism'? Beyond ideology, what was Victorian Britain actually like – and in particular, what was distinctive about it? Who were the Victorians – not just the eminent few, but the population as a whole? And finally, how far and with what results did the Victorians and their culture spread across the globe? In answering these questions, Hewitt cautions against some long-held orthodoxies, throws a light on some less well-known aspects of the period, and urges the importance of understanding the Victorians on their own terms if we are to effectively engage with their legacies. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

With an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses political history, the history of ideas, cultural history and art history, The Victorian World offers a sweeping survey of the world in the nineteenth century. This volume offers a fresh evaluation of Britain and its global presence in the years from the 1830s to the 1900s. It brings together scholars from history, literary studies, art history, historical geography, historical sociology, criminology, economics and the history of law, to explore more than 40 themes central to an understanding of the nature of Victorian society and culture, both in Britain and in the rest of the world. Organised around six core themes - the world order, economy and society, politics, knowledge and belief, and culture - The Victorian World offers thematic essays that consider the interplay of domestic and global dynamics in the formation of Victorian orthodoxies. A further section on 'Varieties of Victorianism' offers considerations of the production and reproduction of external versions of Victorian culture, in India, Africa, the United States, the settler colonies and Latin America. These thematic essays are supplemented by a substantial introductory essay, which offers a challenging alternative to traditional interpretations of the chronology and periodisation of the Victorian years. Lavishly illustrated, vivid and accessible, this volume is invaluable reading for all students and scholars of the nineteenth century.

This study explores the 'ecology of knowledge' of urban Britain in the Victorian period and seeks to examine the way in which Victorians comprehended the nature of their urban society, through an exploration of the history of Victorian Manchester, and two specific case studies on the fiction of Elizabeth Gaskell and the campaigns for educational extension which emerged out of the city. It argues that crucial to the Victorians' approaches was the 'visiting mode' as a particular discursive formation, including its institutional foundations, its characteristic modes and assumptions, and the texts which exemplify it. Recognition of the importance of the visiting mode, it is argued, offers a fundamental challenge to established Foucauldian interpretations of nineteenthcentury society and culture and provides an important corrective to recent scholarship of nineteenth-century technologies of knowing.

The essential guide to passing the MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice (AKP) exam. Closely aligned to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) theory examination syllabus and also reflective of current UK practice. Applied Knowledge in Paediatrics will leave the reader with a sound knowledge of all the core topics relevant to paediatrics and child health. It will also provide a useful study aid for those undertaking the MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice examination. The book covers how and why illnesses develop in children and young people, the appropriate investigations and treatment required, the urgency of implementation and the impact of the disease process on the child and their family. This comprehensive text is edited by Dr Martin Hewitt, a Senior Theory Examiner for the AKP examination, and Dr Roshan Adappa a Senior clinician and postgraduate trainer, with expert input from more than 60 paediatric specialists. 33 chapters provide comprehensive information of all areas of paediatric practice. Directly aligned to the Applied Knowledge in Practice syllabus and examination 50 sample questions along with answers and reasoning explaining each of the answer options Chapter on how to prepare for the RCPCH AKP examination Clinical scenarios in each chapter outlining difficult clinical problems and proposed management plans Clinical images to aid understanding Level of detail to support clinical practice of paediatricians with 12-18 months experience

The rapid eclipse of Chartism, and the relative tranquility of the period 1848-67 has been one of the most enduring puzzles of nineteenth-century British history. This book takes a fresh look at this conundrum, treating the period between the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867 as a coherent whole for the first time. It suggests that previous depictions of 1848 as a watershed in British history have both exaggerated the nature of the transitions which occurred at mid-century, and have over-estimated both the collapse of radical attitudes and the fading of working-class resentment. The experiences of the Manchester working class show that poverty, unemployment and hardship persisted through the mid-Victorian boom. While some workers may have taken advantage of economic opportunities and the various movements of social and moral reform promoted by the middle class to acquire respectability, in general, attempts at middle-class 'moral imperialism' brought only marginal changes to popular culture and attitudes. Instead, it is argued, the roots of the radical collapse and of political stability lie elsewhere: in the initial failure of radical leaders to sustain a firm consensus on effective strategies of reform, and in changes in the political culture of the mid-century city which closed off spaces in which independent working-class politics could continue to function. In the context of the most important industrial city of the era, this study provides a wide-ranging analysis of the complex forces which forged the uneasy compromise on which mid-nineteenth century stability rested.

This study explores the 'ecology of knowledge' of urban Britain in the Victorian period and seeks to examine the way in which Victorians comprehended the nature of their urban society, through an exploration of the history of Victorian Manchester, and two specific case studies on the fiction of Elizabeth Gaskell and the campaigns for educational extension which emerged out of the city. It argues that crucial to the Victorians' approaches was the 'visiting mode' as a particular discursive formation, including its institutional foundations, its characteristic modes and assumptions, and the texts which exemplify it. Recognition of the importance of the visiting mode, it is argued, offers a fundamental challenge to established Foucauldian interpretations of nineteenthcentury society and culture and provides an important corrective to recent scholarship of nineteenth-century technologies of knowing.

With an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses political history, the history of ideas, cultural history and art history, The Victorian World offers a sweeping survey of the world in the nineteenth century. This volume offers a fresh evaluation of Britain and its global presence in the years from the 1830s to the 1900s. It brings together scholars from history, literary studies, art history, historical geography, historical sociology, criminology, economics and the history of law, to explore more than 40 themes central to an understanding of the nature of Victorian society and culture, both in Britain and in the rest of the world. Organised around six core themes - the world order, economy and society, politics, knowledge and belief, and culture - The Victorian World offers thematic essays that consider the interplay of domestic and global dynamics in the formation of Victorian orthodoxies. A further section on 'Varieties of Victorianism' offers considerations of the production and reproduction of external versions of Victorian culture, in India, Africa, the United States, the settler colonies and Latin America. These thematic essays are supplemented by a substantial introductory essay, which offers a challenging alternative to traditional interpretations of the chronology and periodisation of the Victorian years. Lavishly illustrated, vivid and accessible, this volume is invaluable reading for all students and scholars of the nineteenth century.

The Dawn of the Cheap Press provides the first detailed study of the mid-Victorian campaign for the repeal of the taxes on knowledge for over a hundred years. Using the recently discovered papers of the Association for the Promotion of the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge and taking advantage of new forms of research made possible by the digitisation of nineteenth century newspapers, it assesses the impact of the removal of the last surviving legal disabilities on the newspaper industry, the nature of journalism, and the cultures and practices of newspaper reading. The book demonstrates that the campaign against the taxes on knowledge retained broad popular appeal, and played an important role in the politics of mid-Victorian budgets. It not only makes a seminal contribution to the history of the nineteenth century press and print culture, but also illuminates the culture and politics of mid-Victorian Britain, offers an important re-reading of the history of extra-parliamentary pressure group politics and provides new insights into the origins of Gladstonian Liberalism.

The Age of Equipoise by W.L Burn was published in 1964 and became a central text in the canon of interpretations of the Victorian period. The book subsequently fell out of favour but recent claims to establish a new interpretative standard have, paradoxically, prompted reviewers to cast back to Burn's work as the orthodox standard against which such claims should be judged. The essays in this volume by British and American contributors all engage, to varying degrees, with the notion of 'equipoise' and how it can help to illuminate the mid-Victorian period in ways which alternative formulations cannot. Some of the chapters develop arguments embedded in Burn's own book; others take up issues largely absent in The Age of Equipoise, such as the position of children, Britain's interaction with the wider world, and the threats the period experienced to its concept of masculine identity. Together the essays demonstrate the intricacy and turbulence of the forces of cohesion in Victorian society, along with the success of that culture in achieving a working, if shifting, modus vivendi. Moreover, they substantiate the argument that, whatever the limitations of Burn's work, 'equipoise' deserves rehabilitation as a powerful conceptual framework for making sense of mid-Victorian Britain. About the Editor: Martin Hewitt is Director of the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies and editor of the Journal of Victorian Culture. With Robert Poole he has recently produced an edition of The Diaries of Samuel Bamford, 1858-61 (Sutton, 2000).