In this free to read article, @lauracforster.bsky.social explores socialist political lecture tours in the late 19th century and how these produced everyday, intimate experiences that could powerfully embody socialist ideas for new audiences. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
I know the 'the man in the moon' is just a myth. I mean, come on. But am I the only one who sees the man in the earth with a a slightly sad face here? That would be a real scientific advance....
One final reminder/call to BAVS members to join the EGM this afternoon at 2.15 to approve the new constitution. It will hopefully be a largely formal meeting, but we do need a quorum to transact our business. See you later!
Shocked to realise that Jurgen Habermas died and its taken me so long to notice. And a quick scroll back through the skeets suggests a rather meagre response. But for all its gaps, surely his remains some of the most important and still vitally pressing theoretical work of the last 60 years.
Reminder: EGM is happening on Monday 23 March 2026! Open to all BAVS members and we warmly encourage you to attend.
victorianist.wordpress.com/2026/03/17/r...
Calling all BAVS members. Please do attend the EGM next Monday at 14.15 GMT where hope to approve a revised constitution for the Association. We need to be quorate, so it would be great if you could dial in. The link and passcode has been circulated via BAVS mailings. Hope to see you there!
‘The Rossettis: Siblings and Spouses’ exhibition at Wightwick Manor is open. A story of the extraordinary talent of one family, four siblings: Gabriel, Christina, William and Maria, and two spouses: Elizabeth Siddal and Lucy Madox Brown.
It extends to eight rooms and features newly acquired works.
While large swathes of the British press continue to wage an apparently systematic campaign of hostility towards universities, we need much more testimony like this.
Delighted this award winning series I shepherded to hardback publication 5 years ago has come out in more affordable paperback form. A grand collection!
Really looking forward to hearing about May Day, the folkmote & reform debates in the 18/19C from @srwride.bsky.social at the IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar on 17 March. The event is FREE in-person in London and online. @ihr.bsky.social Details: historyofparliament.com/2026/03/10/r...
Teaser now supplied! Results of the 'Humbug' category now online too.
The Greatest Living Victorians, part 2: the greatest living ‘Humbug’
(This blog is a continuation of my previous post on the Pall Mall Gazette's Christmas 1884 competition, in which the editor W.T. Stead asked his readers to nominate the Greatest Living Englishman in ten categories.) If Stead had…
I'm about to post some lengthier reflections to go with my previous blog on the other 9 categories on my wordpress site, profmartinhewitt.com
And only the most marginal signs of anything approaching anti-Victorianism: Martin Tupper, the king of doggerel Victorianism, a paltry 2 votes; Wilfrid Lawson the advocate of prohibition, only 6. No sign of Smiles or the Charity Organisation Society leaders.
But Oscar Wilde already second in 1884/5!? And Lord Randolph Churchill fourth, the only other two to get more than 100 votes, which speaks of a culture uneasy with unorthodoxy, flamboyance, or with anything that smacked of narcissism or personal ambition.
An image of the full results of the PMG poll, headed by 'The Claimant', then Wilde, Booth, Randolph Churchill, and then Irving Bishop, Gladstone, Charles Bradlaugh, Mr Warton, Mr Labouchere, Ashmead Bartlett, Charles Stuart Parnell, Joseph Parker, John Coleridge, and others.
So here's the result for the 'Greatest Living Humbug' in the PMG's Christmas 1884 readers poll. 68 nominees in all to digest, so this might need to become a thread. Arthur Orton, the Tichborne Claimant, the unsurprising winner, and General Booth a predictable third.
Don't worry! The news will drop soon!
I've drawn together some thoughts on the PMG's Christmas 1885 competition to name the 'Ten Greatest Englishmen'.
Newspaper cutting showing the results in more detail; including votes for Gladstone (403), Disraeli (337), George Stephenson (342), Garibaldi (322), Walter Raleigh (284), Pitt the Younger (279), Frederick the Great (257), Duke of Marlborough (255), Lord Bacon (254), Livingstone (241).
When in 1886 the Victorians were asked to vote for the twenty greatest men born since 1500: Shakespeare is outvoted by Napoleon; next 4 Wellington, Nelson, Cromwell and George Washington. Only Newton and Milton get more votes than Peter the Great and Bismarck. Late Victorian militarism in full flow?
The BAVS/Rosemary Mitchell Prize for a Second Monograph 2026 is now open! If you published your second scholarly monograph in Victorian studies between 17 February 2025 and 17 February 2026, please do consider submitting! You can find more information here: bavs.ac.uk/book-prize-2/
We're hiring!
Come work with us @engfac.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk @bkhistoxford.bsky.social !!!
Professorship of Bibliography and Modern Book History
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPP968/p...
🔔 Attention ECRs! Just a reminder that March 1 (next Sunday) is the last day to get your applications in for our annual Mitchell Dissertation Prize! Winners receive $1,000 USD + a 2-yr. membership to RSVP. We look forward to reading your work! rs4vp.org/awards/mitch...
New VPFA Study Day Announcement 📢: 'Out of this World: Science Fiction in the Victorian Period'.
Read the CfP on our website: victorianpopularfiction.org/out-of-this-....
@bavs-uk.bsky.social @rs4vp.org @thevicsoc.bsky.social @global19c.bsky.social
I'm giving the Leicester Victorian Studies Annual Lecture next week!
Come along and explore fame, race, and disability in the 19th c
@bavs-uk.bsky.social @ukdishisthub.bsky.social @bars.bsky.social @leverhulmetrust.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.social @araukie.bsky.social
le.ac.uk/victorian-st...
I've been skeeting the results of a Pall Mall Gazette readers' poll in 1885 for 'the greatest living Englishman' [sic] in 10 categories. Check out the results. The final category was 'Humbug'. So, any thoughts on who you would vote for having been the greatest Victorian 'humbug' living in 1885?
We are advertising 4 jobs at York for historians (1 year medieval, 2 years modern Britain and public history, 3 years modern China, and open ended modern Middle Eastern) features.york.ac.uk/history-jobs/
The final category in the Pall Mall Gazette's vote for the 10 greatest living Englishmen was 'Humbug'. So here's your chance; who gets your vote as the greatest humbug alive in Victorian Britain in 1885?? There's a wide field to choose from....
List of votes for painters, 814 for Millais, 448 for Leighton; Alma Tadema next with 34.
List of votes for men of science. Huxley 866, Tyndall 440, Owen 37.
Down to the less exciting categories of the PMG's 10 greatests. Men of Science an entirely predictable two-horse race, with Huxley the clear winner. Painters hardly more distributed, with Leighton a distant second to Millais. One solitary vote for Kate Greenaway is the only woman in either list.
Don't forget to join us next week for an exciting discussion about the transnational press of the long #19thC. As a reminder, all of our #RSVPDigiEvents are free and open to all, but you must register to receive the Zoom link. buff.ly/rD2BgEG
