Religious routes to Gladstonian liberalism

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Lesley A. Hall

"Outspoken Women: An anthology of women's writing on sex, 1870-1969 brings together the non-fictional writings of British women on sexual attitudes and behaviour nearly a hundred years prior to 'second-wave' feminism. Studying the period from the supposedly prudish Victorian era, to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, this comprehensive study reveals a neglected tradition of British women's writing." "The excerpts analysed here come from polemics, works of advice, surveys, essays and belles lettres, and the authors, including famous and lesser-known figures, provide a diverse range of perspectives, and include social Darwinists, sexologists, psychoanalysts, VD campaigners, as well as women writing about their own lives and experiences." "Hall's remarkable book is an engaging examination of this fascinating subject and provides students and scholars with an invaluable source of primary material."--Jacket.

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edited and translated by Cary J. Nederman

"This volume offers for the first time in English translation several important commentaries on the political scene in early fourteenth-century England. Walter de Milimete's On the Nobility, Wisdom, and Prudence of the King (1327), the two versions of William of Pagula's Mirror of King Edward III (1331 and 1332), and William of Ockham's Whether a Prince Can Receive the Goods of the Church for His Own Needs, namely, in Case of War, Even Against the Wishes of the Pope (1338). All of these treatises offer important insight into such matters as the extent of the king's power in the fourteenth century and earlier, the relationship between church and state, and the particular duties of the ruler toward various of his subjects."--BOOK JACKET.

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Timothy Morton and Nigel Smith

Publisher Description (unedited publisher data) In this volume of interdisciplinary essays, leading scholars examine the radical tradition in British literary culture from the English Revolution to the French Revolution. They chart continuities between the two periods and examine the recuperation of ideas and texts from the earlier period in the 1790s and beyond. Contributors utilize a variety of approaches and concepts: from gender studies, the cultural history of food and diet and the history of political discourse, to explorations of the theatre, philosophy and metaphysics. This volume argues that the radical agendas of the mid-seventeenth century, intended to change society fundamentally, did not disappear throughout the long eighteenth-century only to be resuscitated at its close. Rather, through close textual analysis, these essays indicate a more continuous transmission. Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: English literature 18th century History and criticism, Radicalism in literature, English literature Early modern, 1500-1700 History and criticism, English literature 19th century History and criticism, Revolutionary literature, English History and criticism, Politics and literature Great Britain History, Radicalism Great Britain History.

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E.A. Smith

This book is the only up-to-date survey of the history of the House of Lords, and its impact on British politics and society, in the period from Waterloo to the First World War. It shows how the Lords adapted to, and survived, the 'age of reform'; and traces their changing relationship with the House of Commons and the British people at large. It fills an important gap, for the peerage were, and contrived to remain, major actors in the politics of the age. This survey thus illuminates not only the parliamentary and constitutional history of the time, but also, much more widely, the changing character of nineteenth-century Britain itself. E.A. Smith begins his account with the House of Lords before the 'Great Reform Act' of 1832. Tracing the changing fortunes of the Lords through and after the passage of the Act, he explains how an institution founded on aristocratic privilege and landed wealth, and seeming to embody all that was anachronistic and reactionary, managed to survive into the new era of mass Parliamentary democracy and retain for itself a very substantial influence on, and voice in, the nation's political and social life. How was it done? This remarkable record of adaptation and survival is shown to have its origins in the period immediately after 1832 when, largely through the influence of the Duke of Wellington, the Lords were induced to accept the new conditions. Radical agitation for the abolition of the House declined accordingly. Moreover, as Dr Smith makes clear, Victorian politics and society remained aristocratic in character despite the extension of the franchise, and even the Liberal and Labour governments of the twentieth century have been reluctant to undertake fundamental reform. Even the Parliament Act of 1911, with the passage and implications of which the main part of the book closes, did not undermine the political foundations of the Lords in the way that is usually assumed; and the House has continued to exercise important functions as a restraining influence on policy and legislation down to our own time. As the only comprehensive treatment of this important subject, Dr Smith's book will immediately become necessary reading for scholars and students; but its lively and engaging style will also appeal to anyone interested in the development of the British Parliamentary constitution, the survival and adaptation of the British aristocracy, and the changing character of British politics and society before the First World War.