Publisher's Synopsis
Part of an eight-volume series providing short biographies of men and women from Roman to Victorian times, Who's Who in Late Hanoverian Britain spans the period from the outbreak of the French Revolution to the accession of Queen Victoria. Its themes include the wars against revolutionary France, liberal and radical campaigns for reform of society and institutions, a new and turbulent phase in the 'Irish question', the evolution of mature imperial power, the transforming effect of industrialism on a fast-growing population, and the abolition of slavery. It was a heroic time in many ways. Not only were there the soldiers, sailors and statesmen who defended the nation and consolidated the empire; there were also the great engineers who tackled the obstacles of nature in the conviction that nothing was impossible, evangelical Christians who felt called to take the Gospel to the furthest parts of the world, artists and writers who responded to the visionary spirit, and politicians and students intoxicated by the fall of the Bastille. Revolution did not occur but violence was endemic - two prime ministers fought duels, a third was shot by a bankrupt merchant. 175 short essays place the subject in the context of their age and evokes what was distinctive and interesting about their personality and achievement. The biographies are arranged in a broadly chronological rather than alphabetical sequence so that the reader may easily browse from one contemporary to the next. The index, with its many cross-references, reveals further linkages between contemporaries. Each volume is a portrait of an age, presenting history in a biographical form which complements the conventional approach.
