Understanding the Victorians


Book Description

Understanding the Victorians paints a vivid portrait of this era of dramatic change, combining broad survey with close analysis and introducing students to the critical debates taking place among historians today. Encompassing all of Great Britain and Ireland over the whole of the Victorian period, it gives prominence to social and cultural topics alongside politics and economics and emphasises class, gender, and racial and imperial positioning as constitutive of human relations. This second edition is fully updated throughout, containing a new chapter on leisure in the Victorian period, the most recent historiographical research in Victorian Studies, and enhanced coverage of imperialism and working-class life. Starting with the Queen Caroline Affair in 1820 and coming up to the start of World War I in 1914, Susie L. Steinbach uses thematic chapters to discuss and evaluate topics such as politics, imperialism, the economy, class, gender, the monarchy, arts and entertainment, religion, sexuality, religion, and science. There are also three chapters on space, consumption, and the law, topics rarely covered at this introductory level. With a clear introduction outlining the key themes of the period, a detailed timeline, and suggestions for further reading and relevant internet resources, this is the ideal companion for all students of the nineteenth century.




The Unfit


Book Description

Carlson's history of degeneracy theory, the idea that certain people are biologically disposed to become socially unfit or "degenerate," examines the birth of both good and bad eugenics movements. While good eugenics movements focus on people whose needs may require intense social attention and expensive social investments, bad eugenics movements call for isolation if not eradication and genocide. He brings the history into the present day, where the potential misapplication of DNA science and social attitudes toward the human genome could lead to similar movements.




The Economics of Sin


Book Description

This work examines the definition and evolution of sin from the perspective of rational choice economics. The author argues that because engaging in activities deemed to be sinful is an act of choice, it can therefore be subject to the logic of choice in the economic model.




Men and Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism


Book Description

Bjorn Krondorfer, one of the leading scholars in this field, has collected 35 key texts that have shaped this field within the wider area of the study of gender, religion and culture. The texts in this critical reader engage actively and critically with the position of men in society and church, men's privileged relation to the sacred and to religious authority, the ideals of masculinity as engendered by religious discourse, and alternative trajectories of being in the world, whether spiritually, relationally or sexually. Each of the texts is introduced by the editor and accompanied by bibliographies that make this the ideal tool for study.