Introduction: State and Society in Victorian Britain

Abstract

Abstract This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of this book, which is to survey and evaluate that full range of disciplines, authorities, and interventions that made a ‘laissez-faire’ state possible in Britain in the mid-19th century. It then presents a brief account of these historiographical twists and turns from the Victorians' own self-estimates to the present day, and attempts to show how, in the widest context, these divergent estimates all capture some share of a complex truth. It considers how the Foucauldian perspective, by inducing us to reconceptualize the whole relationship of state to society, has helped us to arrive at the much more complex and multi-faceted conceptualization represented by this volume. It suggests some ways in which the political history and postmodern perspectives might fit together.