Manufacturing Catastrophe tracks the history of industrialization, deindustrialization, and globalization in Massachusetts over the past two centuries. It a history of wrenching economic transformation as told from the perspective of everyday people: European peasants traveling the oceans in search of industrial work, runaway factory owners venturing out in search of cheaper labor abroad, and harried local policymakers trying to recover from repeated bouts of economic cataclysm. For those concerned about the future of American industry in the face of global competition, it provides critical lessons on how some of America's pioneering industrial cities have weathered the tempests of economic upheaval and industrial rebirth.

In 1859, the historian Lord John Acton asserted: 'two great principles divide the world, and contend for the mastery, antiquity and the middle ages'. The influence on Victorian culture of the 'Middle Ages' (broadly understood then as the centuries between the Roman Empire and the Renaissance) was both pervasive and multi-faceted. This 'medievalism' led, for instance, to the rituals and ornament of the Medieval Catholic church being reintroduced to Anglicanism. It led to the Saxon Witan being celebrated as a prototypical representative parliament. It resulted in Viking raiders being acclaimed as the forefathers of the British navy. And it encouraged innumerable nineteenth-century men to cultivate the superlative beards we now think of as typically 'Victorian'—in an attempt to emulate their Anglo-Saxon forefathers. Different facets of medieval life, and different periods before the Renaissance, were utilized in nineteenth-century Britain for divergent political and cultural agendas. Medievalism also became a dominant mode in Victorian art and architecture, with 75 per cent of churches in England built on a Gothic rather than a classical model. And it was pervasive in a wide variety of literary forms, from translated sagas to pseudo-medieval devotional verse to triple-decker novels. Medievalism even transformed nineteenth-century domesticity: while only a minority added moats and portcullises to their homes, the medieval-style textiles produced by Morris and Co. decorated many affluent drawing rooms. The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Medievalism is the first work to examine in full the fascinating phenomenon of 'medievalism' in Victorian Britain. Covering art, architecture, religion, literature, politics, music, and social reform, the Handbook also surveys earlier forms of antiquarianism that established the groundwork for Victorian movements. In addition, this collection addresses the international context, by mapping the spread of medievalism across Europe, South America, and India, amongst other places.

Glimpses of Victorians and the Victorian age through such illuminating media as extracts from letterwriters and books of etiquette, menus, valentines, and sheet music.

The novel is the major literary phenomenon of the twentieth century, and its development in Britain since 1900 has reflected the tumultuous changes that have characterized modern society. Randall Stevenson now presents an accessible and authoritative guide to the work of th ecentury's leading novelists as well as many of its lesser known writers. In this stimulating and wide-ranging account, Stevenson locates the work of individual writers, from Conrad to Jeanette Winterson, within an evolving literary history and the wider context of social, political, and cultural change. Included are British writers working in exile and writers with origins elsewhere, such as James and Rushdie, who have chosen to work in Britain. Women novelists are accorded their rightful prominence. This clear and lively survey deals with a broad range of movements, including modernism and postmodernism, as well as the influence of other world literatures and the impact of two world wars. An ideal text, this is a 'guide' in the best sense—concise and lucid, well-informed and perceptive. Readers new to the field will appreciate Stevenson's clear direction, while the experienced will be delighted by newly revealed connections and fresh perspectives.

Rather than focusing on German philosophy or the French avant-gardes, as many books on the history of aesthetics do, Teukolsky takes up British responses to modern art controversies, thus providing a unique view on the development of artistic forms and art history. She considers the canonical writing of authors like John Ruskin, Walter Pater, and Oscar Wilde alongside texts belonging to the rich field of Victorian print culture--gallery reviews, scientific treatises, satirical cartoons, advertisements, and early photography monographs among them. Spanning the years 1840 to 1910, her argument also adds substance to our understanding of the transition from Victorianism to modernism, a period of especially lively exchange between artists and intellectuals, here narrated with careful attention given to the historical particularities and real events that stamped their imprint on such interactions.

A major new survey of literature in England during the first half of the twentieth century, Chris Baldick places modernist with non-modernist writings, high art with low entertainment. The Modern Movement ranges broadly covering psychological novels, war poems, detective stories, satires, children's books, and other literary forms evolving in response to the new anxieties and exhilarations of twentieth-century life.

Richly illustrated with more than 150 full-color photographs, 'In the Victorian Style' is not only the definitive source book for architects, designers, decorators, and owners of Victorian houses everywhere, but a compelling look at the historical and cultural environment that shaped this unique style.