Victorian Age and Nineteenth-Century America: History, Literature, and Ideas

A comprehensive set of 20 practice flashcards reviewing historical contexts, legislative reforms, social conditions, and literary works of the Victorian Era and nineteenth-century America.

What term describes the contrast between Britain's progress and imperial wealth and its severe social problems during the Victorian Age?

The Victorian Compromise

What did the 1833 Factory Act require and limit regarding children in Britain?

It limited child labour in textile factories and required some schooling.

What was the middle-class ideal of womanhood known as in Victorian society?

The "Angel in the House": a caring wife, mother and moral guide.

Who rebuilt the Palace of Westminster in the Gothic Revival style following the 1834 fire?

Charles Barry, with A. W. N. Pugin.

What six demands were set out in the 1838 People's Charter?

Votes for all adult men, secret ballots, equal electoral areas, paid MPs, no property requirement for MPs and yearly elections.

Which British Prime Minister repealed the Corn Laws in 1846, dividing the Conservative Party?

Robert Peel

What 1848 publication by Marx and Engels described the class conflict between factory owners and workers?

The Communist Manifesto (describing conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat).

What major shift in the governance of India occurred after the 1857 sepoy rebellion against the East India Company?

The British Crown took direct control in 1858, beginning the British Raj.

What protections and rights were established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution?

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery (except as punishment for crime), the 14th Amendment established citizenship and equal protection, and the 15th Amendment protected voting rights against racial discrimination.

In what years did school attendance become compulsory in England and Wales, and when did elementary education become broadly free?

Attendance became compulsory in 1880, and elementary education became broadly free in 1891.

Under what pen name did Charles Dickens write early in his career?

Boz

What poetic form features one fictional speaker talking to a listener, revealing their own character and motives?

A dramatic monologue

Under what pen names did Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë publish their novels to avoid prejudice against women writers?

Charlotte published as Currer Bell, Emily as Ellis Bell, and Anne as Acton Bell.

What narrative structure is employed in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights?

A frame narrative, in which Lockwood writes down a history mainly told by Nelly Dean, placing one story inside another.

Which two classic novels of the American Renaissance were published by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and Herman Melville in 1851?

Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter (1850) and Melville published Moby-Dick (1851).

In Dickens's Hard Times, what rigid educational approach does Thomas Gradgrind enforce on his children Louisa and Tom?

He raises them strictly on "facts," leaving little room for imagination, feeling, or emotional growth.

What do the captain, ship, and voyage represent in Walt Whitman's 1865 elegy "O Captain! My Captain!"?

The captain represents Abraham Lincoln, the ship represents the United States, and the successful voyage represents victory in the Civil War.

In Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, what does the term "fittest" specifically mean?

Best adapted to the conditions, not simply strongest.

What artistic and literary movement values beauty without requiring art to teach a moral lesson?

Aestheticism

How does Bertrand Russell characterize the relationship between philosophy, science, and theology in A History of Western Philosophy (1945)?

He places philosophy between science and theology, explaining that like theology it asks questions beyond what is certainly known, and like science it appeals to reason rather than authority.