Victorian Britain

One of the most popular images of Victorian Britain is Dickens' London, peopled with clever beggars and roaming gangs of starved urchins. Dickens based his London on his own research and experience, as well as the research of his peers.

But, ugh, what a downer!

Aren't you tired of hearing about the poor? I mean, who wants to know what a hellish Randian nightmare a an industrial city can become without any social wellfare systems in place? Yes, Victorian Britain was a turgid morass of classism, sexism, racism, homophobia and anti-semitism, but can't we be nicer to those classist sexist racist homophobic anti-semites? They were, after all, leaders of industry! Never mind the fact that some say this is because they were born in an environment that only favored power and privilege; they did great things, because if they didn't, no one else would have been able to!

It's not apologism if they were just a product of their time! Won't someone think of the poor landowner? Who will defend the honor of the judges who sent children to their deaths? Who will speak for the businessman who forcibly seduced his maids? Who among us has the courage to speak favorably of monarchs, nobles, and gentlemen?

Patrick N. Allitt does, and at length.