Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals, Part I:
Study society in Victorian-era Britain through the advent of commercial lifestyle publishing and the rise of modern magazine culture
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals, Part 1: Women's, Children's, Humour, and Leisure covers British life in the Victorian age and the events, lifestyles, values, and ideas that shaped the world during this milestone period. This collection marks the advent of commercial lifestyle publishing in Britain and charts the rapid rise of modern magazine culture. Among the key themes are:
- The political spectrum of women's writing, from Hearth and Home to the Women's Penny Paper, offering important evidence of women's changing status in the 1800s
- Satirical and comic titles, such as Fun, Punch, and Figaro in London, offer insight into what made people laugh during these times. The rapid increase of publications devoted to children's entertainment and education is illustrated with Boy's Own Paper and Good Words for the Young
- The explosion of interest and participation in popular sports and hobbies, from gardening and horse racing to cricket, cycling, and golf
The first in the series Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals, Part 1: Women's, Children's, Humour, and Leisure charts the rapid rise of publishing in a reading culture expanding through a rise in literacy and leisure and an explosion of sports and hobbies. The series acts as a barometer of literacy and social mobility in the 1800s with a particular focus on the underdocumented aspects of women, children, humor, and leisure activity in the Victorian age. It features the political spectrum of women's writing from Hearth and Home and the Women's Penny Paper, providing insight into women's changing status in the 1800s. Satirical and comic titles such as Punch and Figaro in London illustrate the humor of the period. Periodicals that helped shape the values of future empire builders, including Boy's Own and Good Words for the Young, chart the growth of children's entertainment and education. Titles like Baily's Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, and Racing Register track the explosion in sports and hobbies, from gardening to horse racing, cricket, cycling, and golf. This series draws from the remarkable collections of the British Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Australia, and National Library of South Africa. There are a wide variety of periodicals in New Readerships that reflect the changes and influences in political and rural life, children's literature, and leisure, such as:
- The Northern Star
- The Satirist
- British Women's Temperance Journal
- The Shield
- Country Gentlemen
- Routledge's Every Girls Annual
- Little Wide Awake
- Union Jack: Tales for British Boys
- Ladies Fashionable Repository
- Baily's Monthly Magazine of Sport
- The Fishing Gazette
FEATURED TESTIMONIAL
“[U]nprecedented in its range and potential, and of interest to historians and students of nineteenth-century literature and culture, empire, feminism, the history of the book, the creative and performing arts, sport and leisure, science and medicine, the professions, in short, of all aspects of nineteenth-century life that the press encompassed.”
- Joanne Shattock, Editor in Chief
Additional Details
subjects covered
- British Studies
- European Studies
- Gender & Women's Studies
- Humanities & Social Sciences
- Sociology
Platform Features & Tools
Term Frequency
Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, places, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.
Topic Finder
By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.
Cross-Search Capability
Search across the content of complementary primary source products, including books, in one united, intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.
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