Wealth and Welfare: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1851-1951

by Martin Daunton

Overview

This collection of essays explores the questions of what counted as knowledge in Victorian Britain, who defined knowledge and the knowledgeable, by what means and by what criteria.

During the Victorian period, the structure of knowledge took on a new and recognizably modern form, and the disciplines that we now take for granted took shape. The ways in which knowledge was tested also took on a new form, with oral examinations and personal contacts giving way to formal written tests. New institutions of knowledge were created: museums were important at the start of the period (knowledge often meant classifying and collecting); by the end, universities had taken on a new promince. Knowledge expanded and Victorians needed to make sense of the sheer scale of information, to popularize it, and at the same time to exclude ignorance and error - a role carried out by encyclopedias and popular publications.

The concept of knowledge is complex and much debated, with a multiplicity of meanings and troubling relationships. By studying the Victorian organization of knowledge in its institutional settings, these essays contribute to our consideration of these wider issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198732099
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/23/2007
Series:	An ^AEconomic and Social History of Britain
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	672
Product dimensions:	9.24(w) x 6.35(h) x 1.38(d)

About the Author

Martin Daunton is Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and President of the Royal Historical Society. He was formerly Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College. He has written extensively on British history since 1700, especially on urban history and economic and social policy, and is the author of Progress and Poverty, which covers the period from 1700 to 1851 and is also published by Oxford University Press.

Table of Contents

1. IntroductionPart IThe Anatomy of the British Economy2. Aristocrats, agriculture and the land3. Industrialists and the urban economy4. The service economy5. The growth of the British economyPart IIGlobalization and Deglobalization6. Free trade and protectionism7. Capital exports8. The rise and demise of the gold standard9. Rebuilding the international economic order?Part IIIPoverty, Prosperity and Population10. Births and marriages11. Deaths and disease12. Rich and poor13. Cultures of consumptionPart IVPublic Policy and the State14. Taxing and spending15. Education16. From the poor law to the Liberal social reforms17. War, reconstruction and depression18. Building a new Jerusalem