Three Victorian Historians

Hallam, Buckle, Gardiner

By: David M. Fahey

£64.99

Diverse and contrasting historians like Hallam, Buckle, and Gardiner open windows through which we can see Victorian England as it changed. This book reinterprets the works of these great historians whom the Victorians read, offering its own insight into the era.

Victorian England understood itself through history. The historians that it read changed over the decades from gentlemen-scholars like Henry Hallam who wrote after wide reading…

Victorian England understood itself through history. The historians that it read changed over the decades from gentlemen-scholars like Henry Hallam who wrote after wide reading to professional historians such as Samuel Rawson Gardiner who wrote after laborious archival research. Its fascination with history even allowed Victorian England to celebrate, albeit briefly, Henry Thomas Buckle, who tried to make history a science on the model of physics and astronomy. His popularity lasted longer outside his homeland in countries such as Russia, Japan, and Brazil. Diverse and contrasting historians like Hallam, Buckle, and Gardiner open different, sometimes blurry windows though which the twenty-first century can try to see the Victorian era as it changed. Scholars recently have reinterpreted the books written by these three historians and their lives, often persuasively, sometimes controversially. The present book offers its own insight into the works of these great historians whom the Victorians read.

David M. Fahey is Professor of History Emeritus at Miami University, Ohio, USA. He is best known for his books and articles about temperance and drink in England and America. His first important article was “Temperance and the Liberal Party—Lord Peel’s Report, 1899,” in the Journal of British Studies (1971). Recently he has published Temperance Societies in Late Victorian and Edwardian England (2020), The Politics of Drink in England, from Gladstone to Lloyd George (2022), and Forgotten Temperance Reformers (2023). Earlier, with more emphasis on the United States, he published Temperance and Racism: John Bull, Johnny Reb, and the Good Templars (1996) and co-edited two alcoholic drink historical encyclopedias (2003 and 2013). He contributed many articles about temperance reformers to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, including entries for Joseph Malins and Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle. Fahey’s new book has its roots in his doctoral dissertation, “Historical Interpretations of the English Civil War” (1964). Its chapter on Henry Hallam was the basis for an article published in the Historian (1966).

Hardback

ISBN: 1-0364-4568-2
ISBN13: 978-1-0364-4568-3
Date of Publication: 2025-04-16

Ebook

ISBN: 1-0364-4569-0
ISBN13: 978-1-0364-4569-0
Date of Publication: 2025-04-16

Category: Social Sciences, History, History

Pages: 188

Subject Codes:

BIC: HBAH, HBJD1, HBLL
THEMA: NHAH(3ML), NHD(3MN), NH

Pages: 188

"Representing a valuable contribution to the current historiography, Fahey bills it as a sequel to Brian Harrison’s Drink and the Victorians"
- Craig Stafford University of Liverpool, UK
"David M. Fahey's The Politics of Drink in England, From Gladstone to Lloyd George will be an important reference text for researchers interested in the influence of special-interest lobbies and the regulation of alcohol consumption in British party politics."
- Danielle Kinsey Associate Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Meet The Author

David M. Fahey

Forgotten Temperance Reformers

By: David M. Fahey

From £32.99

This book is a collection of biographies of forgotten leaders in the temperance movement. Recovering the lives and works of these reformers enhances our understanding of the movement and is for anyone interested in the lost history of social movements.

The Politics of Drink in England, from Gladstone to Lloyd George

By: David M. Fahey

From £32.99

From the 1870s to the 1920s, a political struggle raged over public houses. Temperance reformers clashed with the powerful drink trade over compensation for pub closures, creating a stalemate broken only by a controversial deal and radical WWI experiments like State Purchase.

Temperance Societies in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

By: David M. Fahey

From £29.99

By studying the temperance societies of Victorian and Edwardian England, this book opens a window onto middle-class and working-class society. These organizations of men, women, and children provided the backbone for temperance as both a social movement and a political lobby.

Three Victorian Historians

Hardback

Ebook

Subject Codes:

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Meet The Author