Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Society and Cultural Forms in Nineteenth Century England

  • Textbook
  • © 1998

Overview

Authors:
  1. Simon Dentith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Accessible introduction to nineteenthcentury British society and culture
    Maps the cultural changes that took place during this period of extraordinary transformation

Part of the book series: Social History in Perspective (SHP)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: ‘Society’ and ‘Cultural Form’

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 1-27

  3. Connections — Culture and the Social Order

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 28-52

  4. Divisions: Cultural and Social Challenges

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 53-75

  5. Rural England

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 76-102

  6. Understanding the City

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 103-127

  7. Gender and Cultural Forms

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 128-155

  8. Ethnicity, Race and Empire

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 156-180

  9. Conclusion

    • Simon Dentith
    Pages 181-182

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 183-206
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

The massive transformation of British society in the course of the nineteenth century is a commonplace of historical description. The transition from an industrialising but still predominantly agricultural society, with many of its traditional, vertically organised forms of social organisation still intact, to a predominantly urban, class-divided and recognisably modern society remains one of the striking transformations of social history, the prototype indeed for much of human history in the twentieth century. The simultaneous transformation of Britain, from one imperial power among others, to the most powerful imperium in history, is equally important, though the cultural manifestations of this imperial situation have been less intensively studied.
The social and cultural changes that accompanied the economic and political changes were no less remarkable - from a society of minority literacy to mass literacy; from an oligarchical social order ruled by a tiny elite, to one with some genuine democratic features where the rule of that elite was at least profoundly challenged; from a time when women were being excluded from the public sphere and the labour market, to the age of the New Woman and a return to the labour market in vastly different circumstances.
The book will seek to map the cultural history of nineteenth century British society in the light of these extraordinary transformations.

About the author

SIMON DENTITH is Reader in English at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation