It is a rule that no Trevelyan ever sucks up either to the press, or the chiefs, or the “right people”.The world has given us money enough to enable us to do what we think is right. We thank it for that and ask no more of it, but to be allowed to serve it.' G. M. Trevelyan The Trevelyans are unique in British social and political history: a family that for several generations dedicated themselves to the service and chronicling of their country, from the radical, reforming civil servant Charles Edward Trevelyan to the historian G. M. Trevelyan. Often eccentric, priggish, high-minded and utterly self-regarding, they have nonetheless left their mark on our past. This engaging history dispassionately explores the lives and achievements of this unique family and the part they played in shaping the history of Great Britain.

Defining the Victorian Nation offers a fresh perspective on one of the most significant pieces of legislation in nineteenth-century Britain. Hall, McClelland and Rendall demonstrate that the Second Reform Act was marked by controversy about the extension of the vote, new concepts of masculinity and the masculine voter, the beginnings of the women's suffrage movement, and a parallel debate about the meanings and forms of national belonging. Fascinating illustrations illuminate the argument, and a detailed chronology, biographical notes and a selected bibliography offer further support to the student reader.