Volume 37, Number 2 · February 15, 1990
Never-Never Land
By David Cannadine
Victorian Things
by Asa Briggs
University of Chicago Press, 448 pp., $29.95
The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830–1900
by F.M.L. Thompson
Harvard University Press, 382 pp., $30.00
The Rise of Professional Society: Britain since 1880
by Harold Perkin
Routledge, 604 pp., $49.95
To an exceptional degree, Britain's twentieth-century history is still haunted by its nineteenth-century past. The physical products of the Victorian world are everywhere in evidence, not just as cosy period pieces, like Liberty fabrics or Doulton vases or William Morris wallpapers, but as a functioning part of contemporary civilization. Take away such buildings as St. Pancras Station, Leeds Town Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament, and the texture of British life would be significantly altered. In the same way, many apparently venerable English traditions, which now seem as immutable as the Tower of London itself, date back in their present guise only to the late nineteenth century: royal pageantry, the old-school tie, cricket and tennis, Gilbert and Sullivan, Marks and Spencer, fish and chips. And the governing elite of Britain remained essentially Victorian in upbringing and outlook until well into the second half of the twentieth century. It was only in 1963 that the first prime minister took office who had not been born when the Queen-Empress herself was still on the throne, and even today the British electorate is constantly reminded that Mrs. Thatcher's muchrevered father was an exemplary product of the late-Victorian era.
Review, 5592 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |