Human Documents of the Victorian Golden Age

First published in 1967 Human Documents of the Victorian Golden Age presents a collection of ‘documents’, textual and pictorial, and human, illustrating and describing what the author calls, one of the most vigorous, vital, fertile periods in the history of the modern world. The material has been arranged in eight main chapters most of which have subdivisions. The first chapter has for its subject The Great Exhibition of 1851, and this is followed by life and labour, a series of picturesquely detailed description of London and the great industrial regions. Young England is concerned with the juvenile workers in factory and workshop. Next, we have the longest chapter in the book Queen Victoria's sisters containing number of documents describing the life of women in domestic service, the London dress factories and workshops, pit- banks and brickfields and in agriculture. Closely connected with this is home sweet home and then the chapter on the sanitary idea. Workers Unite! echoes Karl Marx but it has to do with the British working men who founded the modern trade union and cooperative movements. The last chapter talks about prostitutes and her clients and various environments in which the trade was carried on. This is an essential read for students of British history.