London In The Nineteenth Century: 'A Human Awful Wonder of God'

(Paperback)

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Description

Jerry White's London in the Nineteenth Century is the richest and most absorbing account of the city's greatest century by its leading expert.

London in the nineteenth century was the greatest city mankind had ever seen. Its growth was stupendous. Its wealth was dazzling. Its horrors shocked the world. This was the London of Blake, Thackeray and Mayhew, of Nash, Faraday and Disraeli. Most of all it was the London of Dickens. As William Blake put it, London was 'a Human awful wonder of God'.

In Jerry White's dazzling history we witness the city's unparalleled metamorphosis over the course of the century through the daily lives of its inhabitants. We see how Londoners worked, played, and adapted to the demands of the metropolis during this century of dizzying change. The result is a panorama teeming with life.

Reviews

A dazzling and dramatic narrative of a century of high-speed change ... A must-have for anyone seriously interested in Londons history * Evening Standard *
Magisterial * Observer *
Magnificent ... Charged with infectious enthusiasm for its subject, this is an unmissable treat which ought to be top of every Londoners reading list * Time Out *
A brilliant account of the bursting, overflowing city, with its glittering wealth and harrowing poverty * Financial Times *
Jerry White is to London as Boswell is to Johnson... London in the Nineteenth Century should sit on your shelf alongside Debretts, the Oxford dictionary, and your complete set of Dickens * Daily Telegraph *
White brings to his book a diligence and contagious zest that may serve to discourage anyone from ever tackling the subject again * Sunday Times *
Fascinating irresistible -- Liza Picard * BBC History Magazine *

Author Bio

Professor Jerry White teaches London history at Birkbeck, University of London, and has been writing about the city for over thirty years. His London in the Twentieth Century won the Wolfson Prize in 2001 and his London in the Eighteenth Century completed the acclaimed trilogy in 2012. His mroe recent books include Zeppelin Nights, a social history of London during the First World War, and Mansions of Misery: A Biography of the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University of London in 2005 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.