Contested Liberalisms: Martineau, Dickens and the Victorian Press (Paperback)

Reframes the long-standing critical narrative of the relationship between Harriet Martineau and Charles DickensDemonstrates, through new readings of Martineau and Dickens's travel in and writing about the United States, how their encounters with the American public sphere were crucially formative in both writers' careers and in their shaping as journalistsPlaces Martineau and Dickens within the context of Anglo-American liberalism, thereby expanding our reading of them beyond earlier schema framed in narrower terms of political economyExpands understandings of transatlantic literary exchange to offer a more comprehensive reading than those offered through an earlier critical focus simply on the issue of international copyrightFocusing on the importance of Martineau's contribution to the development of the early Victorian press, this book highlights the degree to which the public quarrel between her and Dickens in the mid-1850s represented larger fissures within nineteenth-century liberalism. It places Martineau and Dickens within the context of Anglo-American liberalism and demonstrates how these fissures were embedded within a transatlantic conversation over the role of the press in forming a public sphere essential to the development of a liberal society.

Author:

Iain Crawford

Publisher:

Edinburgh University Press

Publication Date:

August 31, 2021

Number of pages:

336 pages

Language:

English

Binding:

Paperback

ISBN-10:

1474453147

ISBN-13:

9781474453141