The Best and Worst of Times?: Culture, Crime, Identity in Victorian England

Picture license:

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial

Victorian England was above all, an era of contrasts, where polite society primness sat alongside back street squalor, and imperial grandeur masked criminalization of the poor. This course will explore those contrasts through an investigation of Victorian Culture - at its best and worst.

Date created:

2013-10-09 13:51

Tutor:

Kate Watson

Subjects:

History by period, Modern history 1800-1899

Keywords:

dickens, empire, Jack the Ripper

Course type:

Weekly class

Course: Further details, online booking

Resources for this course

Displaying 1 - 40 of 43

Resource	Description	People	Full details
Coursework Handbook	Includes questions, documents and a bibliography.	Kate Watson	view
Crime and the Victorians, By Professor Clive Emsley	A very useful study of this key area of Victorian England		view
The Rise of the Victorian Middle Class, By Dr Donna Loftus	Another key theme of the Victorian period		view
Women's Work, By Professor Pat Hudson	A further key aspect of Victorian life explored here		view
The Victorian Web	A general and very wide ranging guide to all things Victorian with multiple additional links and contributing authors.		view
Some Key Dates	Some key dates to give you a framework!	Kate Watson	view
more key dates!	from the mid Victorian period	Kate Watson	view
even more key dates!	from the late Victorian period	Kate Watson	view
Key Themes: Poverty & Society	Key themes from week 2	Kate Watson	view
	A punch cartoon from 1849 illustrating the hidden realities of contemporary sweat shops. (Author's Photo)	Kate Watson	view
Poverty & Society - Dickens Extracts	Selected extracts from Dicken's journalistic accounts of Victorian workhouse life.	Kate Watson	view
	‘Sketch of a bench on the (Parisian) boulevards, occupied by only four English people who only know each other by sight’, Punch, 1870 A...	Kate Watson	view
Politics & class Key Themes	Some key themes from week 3 of the course	Kate Watson	view
The Chartist Petitions	Response from the Select Committee to the Chartist Petitions	Kate Watson	view
The Thackeray and Yates Dispute	Extracts from Correspondence between and about the two men	Kate Watson	view
	'The Shadow of a Great City', cartoon from People magazine, 1902, reflecting popular fear of urban crime, in the immediate aftermath of the...	Kate Watson	view
Crime & Respectability	Extracts from a House of Commons Committee meeting investigating crime and it's causes	Kate Watson	view
Key Themes, Crime & Policing	An overview of the key themes from topic 4	Kate Watson	view
Jack the Ripper	The first of the so-called Ripper letters to be received by the police	Kate Watson	view
Key Themes Health & Sanitation	Some key themes from topic 5 of the course	Kate Watson	view
A Snapshot of London Life	Extracts from Mayhew's classic studies of Victorian streetlife	Kate Watson	view
Sanitation & the Great Stink	Extracts from two contemporary articles on the problem of London's sanitation - including a rather satirical view from Dickens!	Kate Watson	view
Factory Reforms	An overview of some of the key Factory Reforms of the Victorian Era	Kate Watson	view
	A French cartoon satirising the supposed duplicity of British interests in Africa, from 1898. (my photo)	Kate Watson	view
Social Darwinism	Some key extracts from the works of Herbert Spencer, a key Social Darwinist	Kate Watson	view
Kipling & the Anglo-Indian Experience	Extracts from 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', Kipling's classic story of the divided and sometimes traumatized identity of British children born in India...	Kate Watson	view
Key Themes from unit 6	Some key themes on Empire & Race	Kate Watson	view
Key Themes Gender & Sexuality	Some key themes from this unit	Kate Watson	view
Women in Victorian England	Some key dates	Kate Watson	view
George Elliot on Victorian Women's Fiction	Some key extracts from Eliot's work	Kate Watson	view
The Trial of Oscar Wilde	Edited extracts from the criminal trials	Kate Watson	view
Domesticity & Leisure - some key themes	Some Key Themes from this unit	Kate Watson	view
Suburban population growth	A statistical overview of suburban population growth	Kate Watson	view
Three Men in a Boat - Extracts	Some key extracts for class discussion	Kate Watson	view
Diary of a Nobody - Extracts	Some key extracts from the text for class discussion	Kate Watson	view
Key Themes: Image & Art	Some key themes from this unit	Kate Watson	view
PRB art & commerce	A brief look at the issue of art and commerce and the surrounding tensions within the PRB	Kate Watson	view
The Role of Cruikshank	A brief look at Cruikshank's work and his relationship with Dickens (painting my photo)	Kate Watson	view
Dawn of a New Age? Turner & the Early Victorian Era	A brief look at two classic paintings by Turner capturing the moment of cultural transformation (paintings my photos)	Kate Watson	view
Key themes from unit 10	Some key themes from Monarchy and Majesty	Kate Watson	view