Public speech and the culture of public life in the Age of Gladstone / Joseph S. Meisel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meisel, Joseph S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart), 1809-1898--Oratory.

Gladstone, W. E.

Oratory--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Oratory.

Political oratory--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Political oratory.

Great Britain--Civilization--19th century.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Politics and government--1837-1901.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (409 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

By the last decades of the nineteenth century, more people were making more speeches to greater numbers in a wider variety of venues than at any previous time. This book argues that a recognizably modern public life was created in Victorian Britain largely through the instrumentality of public speech. Shedding new light on the careers of many of the most important figures of the Victorian era and beyond, including Gladstone, Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, John Bright, Joseph Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and Canon Liddon, the book traces the ways in which oratory came to occupy a central position in the conception and practice of Victorian public life. Not a study of rhetoric or a celebration of great oratory, the book stresses the social developments that led to the production and consumption of these speeches.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Tables

List of illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Schools for Public Speaking

2. The House of Commons

3. Religion

Law

The Platform

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [341]-363) and index.

ISBN:

9780231505826

0231505825

OCLC:

818856953