HIS 116 — Society and Culture in Victorian England: Only You and Me Dressed Differently
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Julie Taddeo
Date(s): Jan 26—Mar 2
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Mondays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—7:20 pm (PT)
Please Note: No class on February 16
Tuition: $370
Refund Deadline: Jan 28
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 40
Status: Open
Quarter: Winter
Day: Mondays
Duration: 5 weeks
Time: 5:30—7:20 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 26—Mar 2
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $370
Refund Deadline: Jan 28
Instructor(s): Julie Taddeo
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Enrollment Limit: 40
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
Please Note: No class on February 16
“I don’t believe that there ever were such people. Only you and me and William dressed differently,” observes Mrs. Swithin in Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts (1941). Queen Victoria, Jack the Ripper, Charles Darwin, and Oscar Wilde were all “Victorian,” but what did that label mean beyond the costumes and theatrics we see in popular culture?
This course examines England’s social and cultural life from 1830 to 1900, spanning Buckingham Palace, the parlors of the prosperous middle class, and the slums of London’s East End. We will encounter the queen who modernized the monarchy while promoting ideals of self-help and domesticity that shaped laws on poverty—and gave rise to Dickensian workhouses. Victorians flocked to entertainments marketed as “scientific” and consumed colonial products that reinforced racial, gender, and class hierarchies. Yet figures like the New Women, “inverts,” and criminals such as Jack the Ripper challenged the moral order. Together, we’ll revisit enduring myths and uncover why the Victorians still captivate us.
This course examines England’s social and cultural life from 1830 to 1900, spanning Buckingham Palace, the parlors of the prosperous middle class, and the slums of London’s East End. We will encounter the queen who modernized the monarchy while promoting ideals of self-help and domesticity that shaped laws on poverty—and gave rise to Dickensian workhouses. Victorians flocked to entertainments marketed as “scientific” and consumed colonial products that reinforced racial, gender, and class hierarchies. Yet figures like the New Women, “inverts,” and criminals such as Jack the Ripper challenged the moral order. Together, we’ll revisit enduring myths and uncover why the Victorians still captivate us.
JULIE TADDEO
Research Professor of British History, University of Maryland
Julie Taddeo received a PhD from the University of Rochester and has been teaching for over 25 years. She is the author and editor of books on the Bloomsbury Group, period drama television, steampunk, and the author Catherine Cookson. She frequently lectures on such topics as the Victorians, the British Royals, and British popular culture. Textbooks for this course:
(Optional) Sally Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England (ISBN 979-8765120705)