Public Speech and the Culture of Public Life in the Age of Gladstone

By the last decades of the nineteenth century, more people were making more speeches to greater numbers in a wider variety of venues than at any previous time. This book argues that a recognizably modern public life was created in Victorian Britain largely through the instrumentality of public speech. Shedding new light on the careers of many of the most important figures of the Victorian era and beyond, including Gladstone, Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, John Bright, Joseph Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and Canon Liddon, the book traces the ways in which oratory came to occupy a central position in the conception and practice of Victorian public life. Not a study of rhetoric or a celebration of great oratory, the book stresses the social developments that led to the production and consumption of these speeches.

List of contents

Chapter I: Schools for Public Speaking16
Chapter II: The House of Commons73
Chapter III: Religion161
Chapter IV: Law254
Chapter V: The Platform345
TABLES
Table 1:Union Presidents by Career Category47
Table 2:Union Presidents in the Dictionary of National Biography by Decade49
Table 3:Union Presidents in the Dictionary of National Biography by Career Category49
Table 4:Union Presidents who Attained Judicial, Cabinet, or Episcopal Rank50
Table 5:Contributions to House of Commons Debates102
Table 6:Some Provincial Courthouses Constructed Between 1830 and 1900268
Table 7:Members of the Commons Chiefly Associated with the Legal Profession 307

About the author

Joseph S. Meisel

Summary

Shedding new light on the careers of many of the most important figures of the Victorian era and beyond, including Gladstone, Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, John Bright, Joseph Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and Canon Liddon, the book traces the ways in which oratory came to occupy a central position in the conception and practice of Victorian public life.

Product details

• Authors: Joseph Meisel, Joseph S. Meisel
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 06.12.2001
• EAN: 9780231121446
• ISBN: 978-0-231-12144-6
• No. of pages: 336
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Georgian Era (1714-1837), HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901), c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Social and cultural history