Bibliography of the Victorian era

Works about the United Kingdom and British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria.

References

Adams, James Eli et al. eds. Encyclopedia of the Victorian era (4 vol, Groiler 2003); online vol 1-2-3-4; comprehensive coverage in 500 articles by 200 experts

Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa, eds. The encyclopedia of the Victorian world: a reader's companion to the people, places, events, and everyday life of the Victorian era (Henry Holt, 1996) online

Hughes, William. Key Concepts in Victorian Studies (Edinburgh University Press; 2023), covers culture, literature and politics.

Mitchell, Sally.. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia (Garland, 1990), not online

General

Bailey, Peter. Leisure and class in Victorian England: Rational recreation and the contest for control, 1830–1885 (Routledge, 2014). Best, Geoffrey. Mid-Victorian Britain, 1851–1875 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971) Bourne, Kenneth. The foreign policy of Victorian England, 1830–1902 (1970) online, survey plus primary documents Briggs, Asa. The Age of Improvement 1783–1867 (1979), Wide-ranging older survey emphasizing the reforms. online Cevasco, G. A. ed. The 1890s: An Encyclopedia of British Literature, Art, and Culture (1993) 736pp; short articles by experts Chadwick, Owen. The Victorian Church (2 vol 1966), covers all denominations online Clark, G. Kitson The making of Victorian England (1963). online Ensor, R. C. K. England, 1870–1914 (1936) online influential scholarly survey Gregg, Pauline. A Social and Economic History of Britain: 1760–1950 (1950) online Harrison, J.F.C. Early Victorian Britain 1832–1851 (Fontana, 1979). Harrison, J.F.C. Late Victorian Britain 1875–1901 (Routledge, 2013). Heilmann, Ann, and Mark Llewellyn, eds. Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century, 1999–2009 (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 323 pages; looks at recent literary & cinematic, interest in the Victorian era, including magic, sexuality, theme parks, and the postcolonial Hilton, Boyd. A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?: England 1783–1846 (New Oxford History of England. 2006); in-depth scholarly survey, 784pp.

McCord, Norman and Bill Purdue. British History, 1815–1914 (2nd ed. 2007), 612 pp online, university textbook Paul, Herbert. History of Modern England, 1904–6 (5 vols) online free Perkin, Harold. The Origins of Modern English Society: 1780–1880 (1969) online Hoppen, K. Theodore. The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846–1886 (New Oxford History of England) (2000), comprehensive scholarly history excerpt and text search Roberts, Clayton and David F. Roberts. A History of England, Volume 2: 1688 to the present (2013) university textbook; 1985 edition online Somervell, D. C. English thought in the nineteenth century (1929) online Steinbach, Susie L. Understanding the Victorians: Politics, Culture and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2012) excerpt and text search Swisher, Clarice, ed. Victorian England (2000) 20 excerpts from leading primary and secondary sources regarding literary, cultural, technical, political, and social themes. online free Woodward, E. L. The Age of Reform: 1815–1870 (1954) comprehensive scholarly survey online

Daily life and culture

Aston, Jennifer, Amanda Capern, and Briony McDonagh. "More than bricks and mortar: female property ownership as economic strategy in mid-nineteenth-century urban England." Urban History 46.4 (2019): online Biscoff, Christopher "Teaching Britain: Elementary Teachers and the state of the everyday (1846-1906)" (2019) Discusses the training, careers, experiences and views of teachers in England and Scotland. Flanders, Judith. Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England. W.W. Norton & Company: 2004. . Gold, Michael. "History through Literary Imagination: Portrayals of Worker Representation and Collective Action in Condition-of-England Novels, c.1830–1855" Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, (2025) Vol. 46: 1-51. online

Short book covering various aspects of, mainly, state-funded education in England and Wales. Situation in Scotland and Ireland is only touched on. Mitchell, Sally. Daily Life in Victorian England. Greenwood Press: 1996. . O'Gorman, Francis, ed. The Cambridge companion to Victorian culture (2010) Roberts, Adam Charles, ed. Victorian culture and society: the essential glossary (2003). Thompson, F. M. L. Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830–1900 (1988) Strong on family, marriage, childhood, houses, and play. Weiler, Peter. The New Liberalism: Liberal Social Theory in Great Britain, 1889–1914 (Routledge, 2016). Wilson, A. N. The Victorians. Arrow Books: 2002. Young, Gerard Mackworth, ed. Early Victorian England 1830-1865 (2 vol 1934) scholarly surveys of cultural history. vol 2 online

Literature Adams, James Eli. A History of Victorian Literature (Wiley, 2011). Altick, Richard Daniel. Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literature. (1974) online free Felluga, Dino Franco, et al. The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature (2015). Flint, Kay. The Cambridge History of Victorian Literature (2014). Horsman, Alan. The Victorian Novel (Oxford History of English Literature, 1991) Purchase, Sean. Key Concepts in Victorian Literature (2006)

Politics

Aydelotte, William O. “Parties and Issues in Early Victorian England.” Journal of British Studies, 5#2 1966, pp. 95–114. online Boyd, Kelly and Rohan McWilliam, eds. The Victorian Studies Reader (2007) 467pp; articles and excerpts by scholars excerpts and text search Bright, J. Franck. A History of England. Period 4: Growth of Democracy: Victoria 1837–1880 (1902) online 608pp; highly detailed older political narrative A History of England: Period V. Imperial Reaction, Victoria, 1880‒1901 (1904) online Brock, M. G. "Politics at the Accession of Queen Victoria" History Today (1953) 3#5 pp 329–338 online. Brown, David, Robert Crowcroft, and Gordon Pentland, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History, 1800–2000 (2018) excerpt Burton, Antoinette, ed. Politics and Empire in Victorian Britain: A Reader. Palgrave Macmillan: 2001. Marriott, J. A. R. England Since Waterloo (1913); focus on politics and diplomacy; online Martin, Howard.Britain in the 19th Century (Challenging History series, 2000) 409pp; textbook; emphasizing politics, diplomacy and use of primary sources Trevelyan, G. M. British History in the Nineteenth Century and After (1782–1901) (1922). online very well written scholarly survey Walpole, Spencer. A History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815 (6 vol. 1878–86), very well written political narrative to 1855; online Walpole, Spencer. History of Twenty-Five Years (4 vol. 1904–1908) covers 1856–1880; online Young, G. M. "Mid-Victorianism" History Today (1951) 1#1 online.

Religion

Armstrong, Anthony. The Church of England, The Methodists and Society, 1700 –1850 (1973). Aronsfeld, Caesar C. "German Jews in Victorian England." The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 7.1 (1962): 312-329. Bebbington, David W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (Routledge, 2003) online Beck, George A. The English Catholics 1850-1950 (1950) online Bradley, Ian. The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians (1976). online Brown, Stewart J. Providence and Empire: Religion, politics and society in the United Kingdom. 1815–1914 (Routledge, 2014) online Chadwick, Owen, The Victorian Church: Vol 1 1829–1859 (1966); Victorian Church: Part two 1860–1901 (1979); a major scholarly survey; vol 1 online also see online vol 2 Clark, G. Kitson. The Making of Victorian England (1962) pp. 147–205. Davies, Rupert E. et al. A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain (3 vol. Wipf & Stock, 2017). online Flindall, R.P. The Church of England 1815–1948: A documentary history (1972). Gilbert, Alan C. Religion and Society in Industrial England: Church, Chapel and Social Change, 1740 ––1914 (Longman, 1976). Hopkins, Mark. Nonconformity's romantic generation: evangelical and liberal theologies in Victorian England (Wipf and Stock, 2007). Hylson-Smith, Kenneth. The churches in England from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II (1996). Scotland, Nigel. "Evangelicals, Anglicans and Ritualism in Victorian England." Churchman 111.3 (1997): 249-265. online Stiles, Andrina. Religion, society and reform, 1800-1914 (1995) online Urdank, Albion M. Religion and Society in a Cotswold Vale: Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, 1780-1865 (U of California Press, 1990) online Wolff, Robert Lee. Gains and losses: novels of faith and doubt in Victorian England (1977) online Woodward, Llewellyn. The Age of Reform, 1815-1870 (1962) pp. 502–528. online

Crime and punishment

Bailey, Victor. Policing and punishment in nineteenth century Britain (2015). Churchill, David. Crime Control and Everyday Life in the Victorian City (Oxford UP, 2018) Emsley, Clive. Crime and society in England: 1750–1900 (2013). Emsley, Clive. "Crime in 19th Century Britain." History Today 38 (1988): 40+ Emsley, Clive. The English Police: A Political and Social History (2nd ed. 1996) also published as The Great British Bobby: A History of British Policing from the 18th Century to the Present (2010)excerpt

Gatrell, V. A. C. "Crime, authority and the policeman-state." in E.M.L. Thompson, ed., The Cambridge social history of Britain 1750-1950: Volume 3 (1990). 3:243-310 Hay, Douglas. "Crime and justice in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century England." Crime and Justice 2 (1980): 45–84. online Kilday, Anne-Marie. "Women and crime." Women's History, Britain 1700–1850 ed. Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus, (Routledge, 2004) pp. 186–205. May, Margaret. "Innocence and experience: the evolution of the concept of juvenile delinquency in the mid-nineteenth century." Victorian Studies 17.1 (1973): 7–29. online Radzinowicz, Leon. A History of English Criminal Law and Its Administration from 1750 (5 vol. 1948–1976) Radzinowicz, Leon and Roger Hood The Emergence of Penal Policy in Victorian and Edwardian England (1990)

Shore, Heather. "Crime, policing and punishment." in Chris Williams, ed., A companion to nineteenth-century Britain (2007): 381–395. excerpt

Tobias, J. J. Crime and Industrial Society in the Nineteenth Century (1967) . Tobias, J.J. ed, Nineteenth-century crime: prevention and punishment (1972) primary sources. Taylor, Howard. "Rationing crime: the political economy of criminal statistics since the 1850s." Economic history review (1998) 51#3 569–590. online

Historiography

Elton, G. R. Modern Historians on British History 1485–1945: A Critical Bibliography 1945–1969 (1969), annotated guide to 1000 history books on every major topic, plus book reviews and major scholarly articles. online

Homans, Margaret, and Adrienne Munich, eds. Remaking Queen Victoria (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Moore, D. C. "In Search of a New Past: 1820 – 1870," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)

Stansky, Peter. "British History: 1870 – 1914," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)

Webb, R. K. Modern England: from the 18th century to the present (1968) online widely recommended university textbook

Primary sources

Black, E.C. ed. British politics in the nineteenth century (1969) online Bourne, Kenneth. The foreign policy of Victorian England, 1830–1902 (Oxford UP, 1970), contains a short narrative history and 147 "Selected documents" on pp 195–504. online Handcock, W.D. and G.M. Young, eds. English Historical Documents, Vol. XII(1): 1833–1874 Handcock, W.D. ed. English Historical Documents, 1874-1914 (1977) online

English Historical Documents 1815-1870 (1964) online