The English ideology is parliamentary. In this study, which first appeared in 1973, George Watson shows how literary evidence, much of it fictional, can illuminate the life of a great institution like the British parliament.

The book contains chapters on political oratory and the parliamentary novel – that uniquely Victorian form – which Disraeli created and in which Trollope excelled. It is the first comprehensive attempt to use literary evidence to expose the politics of a whole age.

It expounds nineteenth century controversies over democracy, class, race, morality and empire – a study of political language in the era when modern politics was born.

Preface

1. Introduction
2. Ideology and the Victorians
3. History and Revolution
4. Ideas of the Good
5. Laissez-faire and the State
6. The Terms of Party Politics
7. Political Oratory
8. The Parliamenary Novel
9. Democracy and Equality
10. Class or Rank
11. Race and Empire
12. Socialism
13. The Sages

Index

   Preface » (PDF, 99 KB)
   Chapter 1: Introduction » (PDF, 445 KB)

George Watson is a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, author of The Literary Critics and general editor of the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.

"A tour de force, vigorously argued, and provocative in the best spirit of the sources."
Stephen Koss, New York historian

"George Watson is well known for his distinctive and stimulating views, and The English Ideology sees him at his best."
Prof Peter Clarke, Trinity Hall, Cambridge