Defining the Victorian Nation: Class, Race, Gender and the British Reform Act of 1867

by Catherine Hall, Jane Rendall

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published May 25, 2000

About the author

Catherine Hall is a professor of history at University College, London. She is the editor of Cultures of Empire: A Reader and coauthor of Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780 - 1850 and Defining the Victorian Nation: Class, Race, Gender and the Reform Act of 1867.

"My research focuses on re-thinking the relation between Britain and its empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I am particularly interested in the ways in which empire impacted upon metropolitan life, how the empire was lived 'at home', and how English identities, both masculine and feminine, were constituted in relation to the multiple 'others' of the empire. ivilising Subjects looks at the process of mutual constitution, both of colonizer and colonized, in England and Jamaica in the period between the 1830s and the 1860s. My recent book, Macaulay and Son: Architects of Imperial Britain (2012), focuses on the significance of the Macaulays, father and son, in defining the parameters of nation and empire in the early nineteenth century."

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love how descriptive this title is - don't really feel the need to write a review. I reckon that, in the 'old days' when we had to write tens of seasonal blurbs very quickly on the basis of very little info, I could have done a decent job with this title to go on. Anyway, my dissertation is to with gender and citizenship around the 1860s and 70s so very relevant indeed. I liked the structure - an extended co-authored introduction setting the scene and bringing together the class/gender/race lenses was helpful. I also liked the slight repetition this engendered when reading the three substantive chapters (each written by one of the authors) because it's always good to be reminded of stuff. There were also some helpful references for me to follow up on. Aside from the studying aspect, this book was genuinely interesting and well written. I'd recommend it to people interested in thinking about who counts fully as a person, citizen or part of a nation and the complex (and contested) hierarchies of difference that can be constructed.