Victorian

12th Bengal Cavalry, the winning polo team, Peshawar Tournament, 1898. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

King of Games: Politics, Polo, and the Raj

Indian teams besting British sides on the polo field threatened to undermine the colonial enterprise.

‘Hail Germania!’, First World War sheet music, Josef Spary, 1916. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Public Domain.

‘Charismatic Nations’ by Joep Leerssen review

Charismatic Nations: A Cultural History of Nationalism in Europe from 1800 to the Present by Joep Leerssen looks to art and not politics for the birth of the nation.

Middleham, Yorkshire, Peter DeWint, undated. Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain.

‘This Dark Night’ by Deborah Lutz review

This Dark Night: The Life of Emily Brontë by Deborah Lutz vividly reconstructs the world that produced Wuthering Heights. Are there limits to this approach?

‘Effects of the Explosion at the House of Detention Clerkenwell Seen from Within the Prison Yard’, 1867. Museum of London.

The Clerkenwell Outrage

The first Irish Republican bomb detonated on English soil was not intended as an act of terrorism, but its impact – and death toll – sent shockwaves through Victorian London.

‘Male-feathered Peahen’, from A General History of Birds, by John Latham, 1781-85. University of British Columbia, Canada. Public Domain.

Charles Darwin’s Sexual Revolution

The potential implications of Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection did not sit well with Victorian gender mores – or with Darwin himself.

Margaret Bondfield gives a speech to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1932. LSE Library. Public Domain.

‘Margaret Bondfield’ by Nan Sloane review

Margaret Bondfield: The Life and Times of Britain’s First Female Cabinet Minister by Nan Sloane illuminates an overlooked trailblazer of the Labour movement.

Dick Turpin encountering ‘the Brothers’ Gibbet’ at Gonerly, by Pickering, late 19th century. Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Art Gallery Collection. Public Domain.

The Legend of the Gibbet

Did live gibbeting ever take place in Britain? For the Victorians, the macabre question was a pressing one.

James Bryce with Arthur, Duke of Connaught, 1911. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

‘Liberal Worlds’ by H.S. Jones review

Liberal Worlds: James Bryce and the Democratic Intellect by H.S. Jones explores the lost world and writing of a formerly eminent Victorian.

Panic in the stock exchange, Honoré Daumier, 1845. National Gallery of Art. Public Domain.

‘1873’ by Liaquat Ahamed review

Never again – until next time. 1873: The First Great Depression and the Making of the Modern World by Liaquat Ahamed explores one financial panic amongst many.