Historicism and the Human Sciences in Victorian Britain

Historicism and the Human Sciences in Victorian Britain explores the rise and nature of historicist thinking about such varied topics as life, race, character, literature, language, economics, empire, and law. The contributors show that the Victorians typically understood life and society as developing historically in a way that made history central to their intellectual inquiries and their public culture. Although their historicist ideas drew on some Enlightenment themes, they drew at least as much on organic ideas and metaphors in ways that lent them a developmental character. This developmental historicism flourished alongside evolutionary motifs and romantic ideas of the self. The human sciences were approached through narratives, and often narratives of reason and progress. Life, individuals, society, government, and literature all unfolded gradually in accord with underlying principles, such as those of rationality, nationhood, and liberty. This book will appeal to those interested in Victorian Britain, historiography, and intellectual history.

• Shows how widespread historicism is in the study of human life and society, and reveals wider trends and parallels between particular disciplines
• Highlights the distinctive and developmental nature of Victorian historicism and situates it in the context of romanticism and Enlightenment historicism
• Brings together ten leading international scholars, representing a range of disciplines, to discuss developmental historicism across the human sciences