This set reissues eight books that explore the social and political thought of the nineteenth century. The titles in this set, originally published between 1943 and 2001, examine several of the important figures of the time, including Jeremey Bentham and Thomas Carlyle, whilst also examining political movements and the emergence and growth of libertarian thought. This set will be of particular interest to students of social and political history.

The main theme of this book is the complex relationship between government servants and the world around them and this is explored in a number of ways. The essays include studies of the people who played an important part in the development of 19th century government: there is a chapter on the transmission of Benthamite ideas, an ccount of John Stuart Mill and his views on utilitarianism and bureaucracy, and of the work of Charles Trevelyan on the Northcote-Trevelyan Report. The Treasury, the Colonial and Foreign Offices, the Labour Department of the Board of Trade are also examined in relation to government growth in the period.

The studies which comprise this book are essentially organized around a critical encounter with European social theory in its 'classical period' – i.e. from the middle years of the nineteenth century until the First World War – and have the aim of working out some of the implications of that encounter for the position and prospects of the social sciences today. The issues involved relate to the following series of problems: method and epistemology; social development and transformation; the origins of 'sociology' in nineteenth-century social theory; and the status of social science as critique. In each of these areas, Giddens develops views that challenge existing orthodoxies, and connects these ideas to a reconstruction of social theory in the contemporary era.

The intention of this collection of essays, first published in 1971, is to explore the political aspects of some nineteenth century English writers. Under the influence of the great revolutionary upheavals of the period almost all its most important writers were involved, explicitly or otherwise, in political ideas. This is an exploratory volume, and will be of absorbing interest to anyone studying the interaction between literature and ideas in the nineteenth century.

Originally published in 1975, this volume covers the period from the age of Napoleon to the dismissal of Bismarck – a period of national liberation, of revolution, the development of political movements, of parties and the press and the achievement of nationhood. The book is a history of ideals and ideologies, of the beliefs that the people held of themselves, and of others, and of the principles that inspired statesmen, reformers and their adversaries.

Originally published in 1983. The nineteenth century was a time of great economic, social and political change. As Europe modernized, previously ignorant and apathetic elements in the population began to demand political freedoms. There was pressure also for a freer press, for the rights of assembly and association. The apprehension of the existing elites manifested itself in an intensification of often brutal form of political repression. The first part of this book summarizes on a pan-European basis, the major techniques of repression such as the denial of popular franchise and press censorship. This is followed by a chronological survey of these techniques from 1815 – 1914 in each European country. The book analyzes the long and short-term importance of these events for European historical development in the 19th and 20th centuries.

This title, first published in 1982, explores the new Liberalism - the great change in Liberalism as an ideology and a political practice that characterised the years before the First World War - and examines the idea that the new Liberals successfully overcame the need they saw in the 1890’s to make Liberalism more socially reformist. This title will be of interest to students of social and political history.