What did the Georgians think of themselves, and of their exciting, turbulent, and controversial times? The Georgian era (1714-1830) was a time of innovations. It saw the end of monarchical absolutism, the world's first industrial revolution, and deep transformations in religious and cultural life. Britain vastly expanded its global exploration and settlements overseas and played an ignoble role in the international trade in enslaved Africans. But how were these major transitions experienced by people at the time? Are their responses surprising-or to be expected? In this wide-ranging history, Penelope J. Corfield explores every aspect of Georgian life-love and violence, politics and empire, religion and science, industry and towns. People's responses were often divided. Pessimists saw loss and decline, while optimists saw improvements and light. Out of these tensions came the Georgian culture of experiment and resistance. Corfield shows how features of continuity, like the monarchy and titled society, persisted alongside innovations-while both old ways and new developments were challenged whenever the human costs proved too great.

The modern professions have a long history that predates the development of formal institutions and examinations in the nineteenth century. Long before the Victorian era the emergent professions wielded power through their specialist knowledge and set up informal mechanisms of control and self-regulation.
Penelope Corfield devotes a chapter each to lawyers, clerics and doctors and makes reference to many other professionals - teachers, apothecaries, governesses, army officers and others. She shows how as the professions gained in power and influence, so they were challenged increasingly by satire and ridicule. Corfield's analysis of the rise of the professions during this period centres on a discussion of the philosophical questions arising from the complex relationship between power and knowledge.

'Not simply pioneering, but also readable and entertaining.'-F M L Thompson, University of London
This book identifies the growth of the professions as a key element in Britain's modernization from 1700 to 1850. Professional power depended ultimately upon public trust in specialist knowledge, but the professions were subjected to a torrent of ridicule and satire. This analysis of the rise of the professions during this period centres on a discussion of the philosophical questions arising from the complex relationship between power and knowledge.