This book seeks to bring out the various ways in which the Victorian age has left an imprint on political thought, be it in the multitudinous ways Victorian philosophers have been construed, have helped to fashion contemporary theory or informed ideology and political programmes. The contributions of specialists in political philosophy and the history of ideas show the extent to which Victorian thought and culture have provided a framework for the modern political debate.

This major work of academic reference provides the first comprehensive survey of political thought in Europe, North America and Asia in the century following the French Revolution. Written by a distinguished team of international scholars, this Cambridge History is the latest in a sequence of volumes firmly established as the principal reference source for the history of political thought. In a series of scholarly but accessible essays, every major theme in nineteenth-century political thought is covered, including political economy, religion, democratic radicalism, nationalism, socialism and feminism. The volume also includes studies of major figures, including Hegel, Mill, Bentham and Marx, and biographical notes on every significant thinker in the period. Of interest to students and scholars of politics and history at all levels, this volume explores seismic changes in the languages and expectations of politics accompanying political revolution, industrialisation and imperial expansion and less-noted continuities in political and social thinking.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction: Slaves, Spheres, Poetess Poetics -- Section 1 Racializing the Poetess: Haunting "Separate Spheres"--CHAPTER ONE Antislavery Afterlives: Changing the Subject / Haunting the Poetess -- CHAPTER TWO "Not Another 'Poetess' ": Feminist Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Poetry, and the Racialization of Suicide -- Section 2 Suspending Spheres: The Violent Structures of Patriotic Pacifism -- CHAPTER THREE Suspending Spheres, Suspending Disbelief: Hegel's Antigone, Craik's Crimea, Woolf's Three Guineas -- CHAPTER FOUR Turning and Burning: Sentimental Criticism, Casabiancas, and the Click of the Cliché -- Section 3 Transatlantic Occasions: Nineteenth-Century Antislavery Poetics at the Limits -- CHAPTER FIVE Teaching Curses, Teaching Nations: Abolition Time and the Recoils of Antislavery Poetics -- CHAPTER SIX Harper's Hearts: "Home Is Never Natural or Safe"--Notes -- Works Cited -- Acknowledgments -- Index

It was in the Victorian period that the political traditions we know today took shape, but they did so against an intellectual landscape dominated by preoccupations that are now often unfamiliar. H. S. Jones' book provides a genuinely historical overview of this rich period in political thought, incorporating the insights of an abundance of recent work in the history of ideas. Fresh perspectives are given on leading thinkers of the time, including John S. Mill, Thomas and Matthew Arnold, Walter Bagehot, Thomas Green, and Herbert Spencer.

Reveals Queen Victoria as a ruler who captivated feminist activists - with profound consequences for nineteenth-century culture and politics.

The Victorian period in Britain was an “age of reform.” It is therefore not surprising that two of the era’s most eminent intellects described themselves as reformers. Both William Whewell and John Stuart Mill believed that by reforming philosophy—including the philosophy of science—they could effect social and political change. But their divergent visions of this societal transformation led to a sustained and spirited controversy that covered morality, politics, science, and economics. Situating their debate within the larger context of Victorian society and its concerns, Reforming Philosophy shows how two very different men captured the intellectual spirit of the day and engaged the attention of other scientists and philosophers, including the young Charles Darwin. Mill—philosopher, political economist, and Parliamentarian—remains a canonical author of Anglo-American philosophy, while Whewell—Anglican cleric, scientist, and educator—is now often overlooked, though in his day he was renowned as an authority on science. Placing their teachings in their proper intellectual, cultural, and argumentative spheres, Laura Snyder revises the standard views of these two important Victorian figures, showing that both men’s concerns remain relevant today. A philosophically and historically sensitive account of the engagement of the major protagonists of Victorian British philosophy, Reforming Philosophy is the first book-length examination of the dispute between Mill and Whewell in its entirety. A rich and nuanced understanding of the intellectual spirit of Victorian Britain, it will be welcomed by philosophers and historians of science, scholars of Victorian studies, and students of the history of philosophy and political economy.

'After Adam Smith' looks at how politics & political economy were articulated & altered in the century following the publication of Smith's 'Wealth of Nations'.