Gertrude Himmelfarb taught for 23 years at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where she was named distinguished professor of history in 1978. Now professor emeritus, she lives with her husband, Irving Kristol, in Washington, DC. Her books includeThe De-Moralization of Society- From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values; On Looking into the Abyss- Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society; Poverty and Compassion- The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians; The New History and the Old; Marriage and Morals Among the Victorians; The Idea of Poverty- England inthe Early Industrial Age; On Liberty and Liberalism- The Case of John Stuart Mill; Victorian Minds (nominated for a National Book Award); Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution;andLord Acton- A Study in Conscience and Politics.
Himmelfarb is the reigning authority on Victorian social thought. This worthy sequel to her widely acclaimed The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age (LJ 12/1/83) studies the late Victorian effort to attack poverty by harnessing scientific methods to achieve social reform. She examines Charles Booth and Beatrice Webb, the Salvation Army and the Fabians, the development of concepts such as unemployment and the poverty line. But she also considers both historians' attitudes toward Victorian thought and its relevance to our present dilemmas. A masterful and incisive study and highly readable; essential for Victorian specialists, those interested in the history of social thought, and collections serving either.-- Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington
"A monumental achievement. "--Wall Street Journal
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