Democracy, Capitalism and Empire in Late Victorian Britain, 18851910 [Paperback]

Late Victorian Britain witnessed three challenges to its eighteenth-century Republican Ideal: democracy, capitalism and ethnic nationalism. Calling upon the languages and debates of the period, the book examines contending images of the social order with new data analytic techniques and information. Joining the contextual study of history to advanced analytic techniques refutes standard interpretations and provides a more complete portrait of the period. The conclusions on democratic transition have important implications for understanding today's efforts to reap democracy's rewards.Preface - One Step Broken, the Great Scale's Destroy'd - `A Deity of Equality' and `Even a Safer Class of the Population': Debates on Expanding the Polity - `Not Only a Bad Metaphor': Classes, Masses and Races in Late Victorian Politics - `Comfortable Contemplations': The Effects of Franchise Expansion on Long-Term Social-Partisan Alignments - `Our Best Friends': Short Run Changes in Issues and Party Alliances - `There are Races, as There are Trees,...': Challenges to Domestic Empire in Late Victorian Politics - Philosophers, Porters, Parsons and Parvenus - `Men Make Their Own History, But...' `The Chain is Absolutely Continuous and Unbroken': Continuity and Change in the Transition to Mass Politics - Appendix 1: Units of Analysis, Data Description and Sources - Appendix 2: Analytical Techniques - Bibliography - Index