The Victorian period may have come to an end over 120 years ago, but the Victorians continue to be a vital presence in the modern world. In this book Martin Hewitt offers a guide through the thickets of judgement and debate which have grown around the period and its people, to offer a historical overview of the Victorians and their legacies.

Martin Hewitt is a historian of Britain in the long-nineteenth century. During an academic career which involved work at several universities, most recently Anglia Ruskin University, where he was Dean of Arts, Law and Social Sciences, he has published widely on urban history, working-class radicalism, life-writing, the press and the platform. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Victorian Culture and the first secretary of the British Association for Victorian Studies, and from 2020-23 was Belcher Visiting Fellow in Victorian Studies at St Hugh's College, Oxford.

• Acknowledgements


• Introduction


• 1: The Victorians in retrospect


• 2: The Victorian as period


• 3: Victorianism


• 4: Victorian configurations


• 5: Eminent Victorians


• 6: The Victorian world


• Further Reading


• References