Modernity and Meaning in Victorian London

Joseph De Sapio examines how individuals not only understood their contacts with industrial modernity as distinct from the inherited traditional rhythms of the eighteenth century, but how they conceived of their own positions within the increasingly sophisticated political, social, and commercial paradigms of the Victorian years.

Introduction 1. 'The Bonds of Empire and Imperial Fraternity': London as Imperial Capital 2. 'How Differently We Go Ahead in America': American Constructions of British Modernity 3. 'A Kingdom In Itself': Domestic Perceptions of Metropolitan Space 4. 'England Has No Greatness Left Save her Industry': A Path to Disharmony Epilogue