19th Century In The United Kingdom

"Britain under Queen Victoria was Europe's most successful polity since the early Roman Empire. In just 70 years it discovered and bequeathed to us a complete rail network, internal combustion engines, gas and electricity, wireless telegraphy, anaesthetics, public sanitation, mass education, worker protection, full employment, imperial security and democracy."

"The gentleman of the nineteenth century had broken, once Victorianism loomed on the horizon, with the wild and liberalistic vagaries of his forefathers. His background was frequently middle class and in England it was the influence of the Low Church which molded his type. He was deadly afraid to be different. On the Continent it was compulsory military service and in England the public school which fostered the herd instinct. To be different was treason and indecency. The religious principles of old were replaced by taboos. The return to primitive society had begun."