Author: David Newsome
Subject: European History
Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2758-9
Pages: 308 pp., 42 b&w illus.
Description: The Victorian World Picture presents a vivid canvas of the Victorian as they saw themselves and as the rest of the world perceived them.

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"No other work has ever contained such a thorough and complete synthesis of the social and political thinking of the Victorians, and Newsome can expect his work to become a classic."-Publishers Weekly

"Newsome . . . has provided an elegantly written survey of the Victorian world, a daunting task that he handles with authority. . . . The author does make intriguing parallels between contemporary society and that world of a century ago."-Choice

"With grace and tact [Newsome] uses the best of the specialists' research to show a Victorian Britain which is patchier than the one we have fallen into imagining." -The Daily Telegraph

When did the Victorians come to regard themselves as "Victorians" and to use that term to describe the period in which they were living? David Newsome's monumental history takes a good, long look at the Victorian age and what distinguishes it so prominently in the history of both England and the world. The Victorian World Picture presents a vivid canvas of the Victorians as they saw themselves and as the rest of the world saw them.

The Victorian era was a time of unprecedented population growth and massive industrialization. Darwinian theory shook people's religious beliefs and foreign competition threatened industry and agriculture. The transformation of this nineteenth-century world was overhwelming, pervading the social, cultural, intellectual, economic, and political spheres. By the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851, the British were calling themselves Victorians and Prince Albert was able to proclaim, "We are living at a period of most wonderful transition." David Newsome weaves all these strands of Victorian life into a compelling evocation of the spirit of a fascinating time that laid the foundation for the modern age.

David Newsome is a renowned social historian of the period and a biographer. His previous books include On the Edge of Paradise, which won the Whitbread Prize for biography, The Parting of Friends, and The Convert Cardinals.

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