Introduction
1: Making Moral Meanings
2: Encounters with Positivism
3: Death and Immortality
4: The Darwinian Conscience
5: Herbert Spencer, The Radical
6: Poverty and the Ideal Self
7: Motherhood and the Ascent of Man
8: Egomania
Conclusion
The Invention of Altruism is extremely useful, illuminating not
just the spread of the terminology of altruism, its paradoxes and
ambiguities and the several concepts understood by different groups
to be contained within it, but also the broader intellectual
contexts of the late-nineteenth century.
*Mark Blacklock, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth
Century*
The Invention of Altruism is ambitious in scope, and full of
suggestive discussion of important themes.
*Jose Harris, London Review of Books*
The Invention of Altruism is a big book which imparts a great deal
of information about people, books, ideas and politics. Its
substantial and varied range of material is skilfully handled
through Dixon's lucid style and clearly stated methodology.
Certainly one of the real joys of this book is how - rather like
George Eliot in her effort to make literary realism render the
complex web of life - it values a whole cast of protagonists, minor
as well as major. Canonical figures such as Darwin and Spencer are
joined by others of widely varying visibility. ... The journey is
exhilarating and revealing, and encompasses figures rarely met in
intellectual histories...In addition, in his book's boundless
curiosity in following 'altruism' beyond the writers who normally
dominate intellectual histories...Dixon also shows that
intellectual history can be strikingly good cultural history.
*Carolyn Burdett, History Workshop Journal*
The Invention of Altruism: Making Moral Meanings in Victorian
Britain is a rare scholarly treat. Serious and entertaining, it
makes an important contribution to our understanding of the
Victorians and reminds us that they are responsible for the ethical
distinctions we make between altruism and egoism.
*Angelique Richardson, Critical Quarterly*
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