Bibliography of the Victorian era

Works about the United Kingdom and British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Reference

 * Adams, James Eli et al. eds. Encyclopedia of the Victorian era (4 vol, Groiler 2003); online vol 1-2-3-4; comprehensive coverage in 500 articles by 200 experts


 * Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa, eds. The encyclopedia of the Victorian world: a reader's companion to the people, places, events, and everyday life of the Victorian era (Henry Holt, 1996) online


 * Hughes, William. Key Concepts in Victorian Studies (Edinburgh University Press; 2023), covers culture, literature and politics.


 * Mitchell, Sally.. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia (Garland, 1990), not online

General

 * Bailey, Peter. Leisure and class in Victorian England: Rational recreation and the contest for control, 1830–1885 (Routledge, 2014).
 * Best, Geoffrey. Mid-Victorian Britain, 1851–1875 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971)
 * Bourne, Kenneth. The foreign policy of Victorian England, 1830–1902 (1970) online, survey plus primary documents
 * Briggs, Asa. The Age of Improvement 1783–1867 (1979), Wide-ranging older survey emphasizing the reforms. online
 * Cevasco, G. A. ed. The 1890s: An Encyclopedia of British Literature, Art, and Culture (1993) 736pp; short articles by experts
 * Chadwick, Owen. The Victorian Church (2 vol 1966), covers all denominations online
 * Clark, G. Kitson The making of Victorian England (1963). online
 * Ensor, R. C. K. England, 1870–1914 (1936) online influential scholarly survey
 * Gregg, Pauline. A Social and Economic History of Britain: 1760–1950 (1950) online
 * Harrison, J.F.C. Early Victorian Britain 1832–1851 (Fontana, 1979).
 * Harrison, J.F.C. Late Victorian Britain 1875–1901 (Routledge, 2013).
 * Heilmann, Ann, and Mark Llewellyn, eds. Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century, 1999–2009 (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 323 pages; looks at recent literary & cinematic, interest in the Victorian era, including magic, sexuality, theme parks, and the postcolonial
 * Hilton, Boyd. A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?: England 1783–1846 (New Oxford History of England. 2006); in-depth scholarly survey, 784pp.
 * McCord, Norman and Bill Purdue. British History, 1815–1914 (2nd ed. 2007), 612 pp online, university textbook
 * Paul, Herbert. History of Modern England, 1904–6 (5 vols) online free
 * Perkin, Harold. The Origins of Modern English Society: 1780–1880 (1969) online
 * Hoppen, K. Theodore. The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846–1886 (New Oxford History of England) (2000), comprehensive scholarly history excerpt and text search
 * Roberts, Clayton and David F. Roberts. A History of England, Volume 2: 1688 to the present (2013) university textbook; 1985 edition online
 * Somervell, D. C. English thought in the nineteenth century (1929) online
 * Steinbach, Susie L. Understanding the Victorians: Politics, Culture and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2012) excerpt and text search
 * Swisher, Clarice, ed. Victorian England (2000) 20 excerpts from leading primary and secondary sources regarding literary, cultural, technical, political, and social themes. online free
 * Woodward, E. L. The Age of Reform: 1815–1870 (1954) comprehensive scholarly survey online
 * Woodward, E. L. The Age of Reform: 1815–1870 (1954) comprehensive scholarly survey online

Daily life and culture

 * Aston, Jennifer, Amanda Capern, and Briony McDonagh. "More than bricks and mortar: female property ownership as economic strategy in mid-nineteenth-century urban England." Urban History 46.4 (2019): online
 * Biscoff, Christopher "Teaching Britain: Elementary Teachers and the state of the everyday (1846-1906)" (2019) ISBN 978-0198833352 Discusses the training, careers, experiences and views of teachers in England and Scotland.
 * Flanders, Judith. Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England. W.W. Norton & Company: 2004. ISBN 0-393-05209-5.
 * Short book covering various aspects of, mainly, state-funded education in England and Wales. Situation in Scotland and Ireland is only touched on.
 * Mitchell, Sally. Daily Life in Victorian England. Greenwood Press: 1996. ISBN 0-313-29467-4.
 * O'Gorman, Francis, ed. The Cambridge companion to Victorian culture (2010)
 * Roberts, Adam Charles, ed. Victorian culture and society: the essential glossary (2003).
 * Thompson, F. M. L. Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830–1900 (1988) Strong on family, marriage, childhood, houses, and play.
 * Weiler, Peter. The New Liberalism: Liberal Social Theory in Great Britain, 1889–1914 (Routledge, 2016).
 * Wilson, A. N. The Victorians. Arrow Books: 2002. ISBN 0-09-945186-7
 * Young, Gerard Mackworth, ed. Early Victorian England 1830-1865 (2 vol 1934) scholarly surveys of cultural history. vol 2 online
 * Wilson, A. N. The Victorians. Arrow Books: 2002. ISBN 0-09-945186-7
 * Young, Gerard Mackworth, ed. Early Victorian England 1830-1865 (2 vol 1934) scholarly surveys of cultural history. vol 2 online

Literature

 * Adams, James Eli. A History of Victorian Literature (Wiley, 2011).
 * Altick, Richard Daniel. Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literature. (1974) online free
 * Felluga, Dino Franco, et al. The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature (2015).
 * Flint, Kay. The Cambridge History of Victorian Literature (2014).
 * Horsman, Alan. The Victorian Novel (Oxford History of English Literature, 1991)
 * Purchase, Sean. Key Concepts in Victorian Literature (2006)

Politics

 * Aydelotte, William O. “Parties and Issues in Early Victorian England.” Journal of British Studies, 5#2 1966, pp. 95–114. online
 * Boyd, Kelly and Rohan McWilliam, eds. The Victorian Studies Reader (2007) 467pp; articles and excerpts by scholars excerpts and text search
 * Bright, J. Franck. A History of England. Period 4: Growth of Democracy: Victoria 1837–1880 (1902) online 608pp; highly detailed older political narrative
 * A History of England: Period V. Imperial Reaction, Victoria, 1880‒1901 (1904) online
 * Brock, M. G. "Politics at the Accession of Queen Victoria" History Today (1953) 3#5 pp 329–338 online.
 * Brown, David, Robert Crowcroft, and Gordon Pentland, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History, 1800–2000 (2018) excerpt
 * Burton, Antoinette, ed. Politics and Empire in Victorian Britain: A Reader. Palgrave Macmillan: 2001. ISBN 0-312-29335-6
 * Marriott, J. A. R. England Since Waterloo (1913); focus on politics and diplomacy; online
 * Martin, Howard.Britain in the 19th Century (Challenging History series, 2000) 409pp; textbook; emphasizing politics, diplomacy and use of primary sources
 * Trevelyan, G. M. British History in the Nineteenth Century and After (1782–1901) (1922). online very well written scholarly survey
 * Walpole, Spencer. A History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815 (6 vol. 1878–86), very well written political narrative to 1855; online
 * Walpole, Spencer. History of Twenty-Five Years (4 vol. 1904–1908) covers 1856–1880; online
 * Young, G. M. "Mid-Victorianism" History Today (1951) 1#1 online.

Crime and punishment

 * Bailey, Victor. Policing and punishment in nineteenth century Britain (2015).
 * Churchill, David. Crime Control and Everyday Life in the Victorian City (Oxford UP, 2018)
 * Emsley, Clive. Crime and society in England: 1750–1900 (2013).
 * Emsley, Clive. "Crime in 19th Century Britain." History Today 38 (1988): 40+
 * Emsley, Clive. The English Police: A Political and Social History (2nd ed. 1996) also published as The Great British Bobby: A History of British Policing from the 18th Century to the Present (2010)excerpt
 * Gatrell, V. A. C. "Crime, authority and the policeman-state." in E.M.L. Thompson, ed., The Cambridge social history of Britain 1750-1950: Volume 3 (1990). 3:243-310
 * Hay, Douglas. "Crime and justice in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century England." Crime and Justice 2 (1980): 45–84. online
 * Kilday, Anne-Marie. "Women and crime." Women's History, Britain 1700–1850 ed. Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus, (Routledge, 2004) pp. 186–205.
 * May, Margaret. "Innocence and experience: the evolution of the concept of juvenile delinquency in the mid-nineteenth century." Victorian Studies 17.1 (1973): 7–29. online
 * Radzinowicz, Leon. A History of English Criminal Law and Its Administration from 1750 (5 vol. 1948–1976)
 * Radzinowicz, Leon and Roger Hood The Emergence of Penal Policy in Victorian and Edwardian England (1990)
 * Shore, Heather. "Crime, policing and punishment." in Chris Williams, ed., A companion to nineteenth-century Britain (2007): 381–395. excerpt
 * Tobias, J. J. Crime and Industrial Society in the Nineteenth Century (1967).
 * Tobias, J.J. ed, Nineteenth-century crime: prevention and punishment (1972) primary sources.
 * Taylor, Howard. "Rationing crime: the political economy of criminal statistics since the 1850s." Economic history review (1998) 51#3 569–590. online
 * Tobias, J. J. Crime and Industrial Society in the Nineteenth Century (1967).
 * Tobias, J.J. ed, Nineteenth-century crime: prevention and punishment (1972) primary sources.
 * Taylor, Howard. "Rationing crime: the political economy of criminal statistics since the 1850s." Economic history review (1998) 51#3 569–590. online
 * Tobias, J.J. ed, Nineteenth-century crime: prevention and punishment (1972) primary sources.
 * Taylor, Howard. "Rationing crime: the political economy of criminal statistics since the 1850s." Economic history review (1998) 51#3 569–590. online

Historiography

 * Elton, G. R. Modern Historians on British History 1485–1945: A Critical Bibliography 1945–1969 (1969), annotated guide to 1000 history books on every major topic, plus book reviews and major scholarly articles. online
 * Homans, Margaret, and Adrienne Munich, eds. Remaking Queen Victoria (Cambridge University Press, 1997)
 * Moore, D. C. "In Search of a New Past: 1820 – 1870," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)
 * Stansky, Peter. "British History: 1870 – 1914," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)
 * Webb, R. K. Modern England: from the 18th century to the present (1968) online widely recommended university textbook
 * Moore, D. C. "In Search of a New Past: 1820 – 1870," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)
 * Stansky, Peter. "British History: 1870 – 1914," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)
 * Webb, R. K. Modern England: from the 18th century to the present (1968) online widely recommended university textbook
 * Stansky, Peter. "British History: 1870 – 1914," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)
 * Webb, R. K. Modern England: from the 18th century to the present (1968) online widely recommended university textbook
 * Stansky, Peter. "British History: 1870 – 1914," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984)
 * Webb, R. K. Modern England: from the 18th century to the present (1968) online widely recommended university textbook
 * Webb, R. K. Modern England: from the 18th century to the present (1968) online widely recommended university textbook
 * Webb, R. K. Modern England: from the 18th century to the present (1968) online widely recommended university textbook