The Great Exhibition of 1851 represented the high-water mark of Victorian society, and the two decades which followed form one of the most fascinating and fruitful areas of British history. What was life at home and at work like in that era? What motivated the mid-Victorians, and what were their interests and concerns?

          In this delightfully readable and informative study, Professor Best places mid-Victorian Britain in its social, economic and political context.

CONTENTS:
1. The Mid-Victorian Environment
Introduction: the Economic Background
The Urban Environment
Housing and Homes
The Railway and the City
Local Self-government
Public Health and Civic Amenities
The Countryside
The Railway and the Country
2. The Making of Livings
The Cult of Work
Middle-Class Incomes
The Middle Class
Lower-Class Incomes
Women at Work
Children at Work
Improvements in Working Hours and Conditions
Poverty and Unemployment
Philanthropy and Poor Relief
3. Education, Religion and the Use of "Leisure"
Education and the Social Hierarchy
Religion and the Social Order
Society at Play
4. The Social Order of Mid-Victorian Britain
Nobility and Gentry
The Gentleman
Respectability and Independence
Social Dissidence
Crime and Coercion