The Emotions in Liberal Writing, C.1790–C.1920: (Interventions: Rethinking the Nineteenth Century)

This volume from a selection of distinguished international scholars is the first of its kind to explore in depth the emotional dimensions of liberal writing in Britain over the long nineteenth century. Addressing liberal writing in the public sphere rather than high political or parliamentary liberalism, it comprises a clear, context-setting introduction and eleven substantive chapters. The chapters analyse key texts and figures from the 1790s through to the 1920s and offer several different approaches to the central concern with the emotions and liberalism. These include examining the place of the emotions in the ‘good life’; the social and political function of the emotions; emotional rhetoric in liberal writing; and liberal theories of the emotions.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Liberalism and the Emotions in the Long Nineteenth Century – Jock Macleod, William Christie, and Peter Denney Theoretical Perspectives 1 Between science and social philosophy: emotion in liberal discourse at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries – Michael Freeden 2 Liberalism, emotion, and temporality in Mill and Bain – Jock Macleod 3 Victorian ‘artificial intelligence’: or what George Eliot teaches us about statistical modelling – Lauren Goodlad Gender and Empire 4 ‘Strange manners’: liberalism and the uses of women – William Christie 5 Sentiment, violence, liberalism: Eliza Hamilton Dunlop’s The Aboriginal Mother (1838) – Anna Johnston Liberal Lives 6 A Byron among the industrialists: W. R. Greg and the structures of feeling of Manchester liberalism – Jon Mee 7 Liberal autobiography and the possibility of happiness: Mill, Martineau, and Spencer – Alexis Harley 8 A liberal intimacy: Leonard and Kate Courtney in the 1880s – Geoff Ginn Aesthetics and the Senses 9 Listening to liberal religion: sound, feeling, and dissenting attitudes to public worship in the 1790s – Peter Denney 10 The ear of the liberal body – Sarah Collins 11 Sources of liberalism: the geopolitics of beauty – Regenia Gagnier

About the Author :
Jock Macleod is Associate Professor of Literary Studies at Griffith University William Christie is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the Australian National University Peter Denney is Associate Professor of History at Griffith University

Review :
'This volume shines a revealing light on the emotional dimension of nineteenth-century liberalism, bringing to life its deeply human core' Alexandre Lefebvre, author of Liberalism as a Way of Life