Queen Victoria: Gender and Empire
- ISBN-10
- 0190250003
- ISBN-13
- 9780190250003
- Series
- Queen Victoria
- Category
- Great Britain
- Pages
- 232
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-08-31
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Author
- Susan Kingsley Kent
Description
Part of The World in A Life series, this brief, inexpensive text provides insight into the life of Queen Victoria. As one of the longest reigning monarchs in British history, Queen Victoria gave her name to an age filled with enormous possibilities and perplexing contradictions. At the time of Victoria's birth, Britain ruled over what was fast becoming the greatest empire in the world, containing millions of non-white, non-Christian peoples. During her childhood and youth, the kingdom itself became transformed from one dominated by landed aristocrats to one governed according to the principles of bourgeois liberalism. The royal family served as the most visible symbol of domesticity, while at the same time Victoria's very position as queen defied the ideology of separate spheres upon which domesticity rested. Victoria, the ruler of millions of people, opposed women participating in politics or public life. She believed women's suffrage to be a "wicked folly" and a violation of God's laws. She never gave up that belief, even as the fledging feminist movement of mid-century matured and grew to the size of a mass movement by the end of the century. And yet she reigned, with little thought of the contradictions that entailed. We live in a global age where big concepts like "globalization" often tempt us to forget the personal side of the past. The titles in The World in A Life series aim to revive these meaningful lives. Each one shows us what it was like to live on a world historical stage. Brief, inexpensive, and thematic, each book can be read in a week, fit within a wide range of curricula, and shed insight into a particular place or time. Four to six short primary sources at the end of each volume sharpen the reader's view of an individual's impact on world history.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
By Julia BairdThe Boy Jones, as the London newspapers called him, had broken in once before, in December 1838. He was captured by police in St. James's Street, following a chase, and was found wearing two pairs of trousers and two overcoats.
-
Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion
By Helen RappaportIn this fascinating guide to every aspect of Queen Victoria's life, author Helen Rappaport analyzes the queen's personality, celebrates her achievements, and details the shortcomings of her empire, both in Britain, with its continuing ...
-
Queen Victoria
By Lytton StracheyReprint of the biography of Queen Victoria, originally published in 1921.
-
Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy
By Ellen Datlow, Terri WindlingQueen Victoria's Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes ...
-
Queen Victoria: A Personal History
By Christopher HibbertIn 1837, Victoria came to the throne at the age of 18, a pretty girl, not five feet tall, to preside over what was, perhaps, the most momentous period in British history.
-
The Last Days of Glory: The Death of Queen Victoria
By Tony RennellRecreates the twenty-three days in January 1901 when Queen Victoria journeyed to Osborne House to meet her fate and succumb to the illness that had plagued her, bringing a dark pall upon Britain and signaling the end of an era.
-
Queen Victoria's Secrets
By Adrienne MunichWith so much riding on the image conveyed by clothes , no wonder Queen Victoria might fear fashion . ... in the previous chapter appreciated clothes ' colonizing function , the age's fashion writers preached clothing's importance and ...
-
Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria
By Julia P. GelardiHere are the stories of Alexandra, whose enduring love story, controversial faith in Rasputin, and tragic end have become the stuff of legend; Marie, the flamboyant and eccentric queen who battled her way through a life of intrigues and was ...
-
A Royal Passion: Queen Victoria and Photography
By Anne M. LydenGift of Dana Broccoli Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, plate 10 William Henry Fox TalboT British, 1800–1877 Nelson's Column under Construction in Trafalgar Square, London, April 1844 Salted paper print from a paper negative 17.1 ...
-
Victoria Travels: Journeys of Queen Victoria Between 1830 and 1900, with Extracts from Her Journal
By David DuffVictoria Travels: Journeys of Queen Victoria Between 1830 and 1900, with Extracts from Her Journal