How will these resources help you?

Britain in the nineteenth century gets a poor press. For many students, their only exposure to it is via the industrial revolution, which can be taught mainly as an account of appalling conditions in factories, leaving little room for historical analysis. Also, the undoubted injustices of the nineteenth century – slavery, oppressive attitudes towards women, intolerant attitudes towards religious minorities and a lack of voting rights – have sometimes been perceived as difficult to tackle: it is uncomfortable to acknowledge that along with all their apparent modernity (these people had the telephone, photography, audio recordings and cars) many held deeply prejudiced attitudes. Compounding this, the era has traditionally been taught as a progression of acts, administrations and committees – further draining engagement from the subject. But both the era and the politicians operating within it were vitally important in laying the foundations of the modern world, and they deserve to be studied using resources that are engaging and vibrant.