The invention of photography in the first half of the 19th century
gave people a completely different way of recording what was
happening around them and soon professional and amateur
photographers were turning their lenses onto every subject
imaginable - monarchs and politicians, soldiers at war, industry
and transport, farming and rural life, national celebrations,
ordinary people at home and at work, entertainers and actors,
fashion, sport, school and much else. Their work has given us a
unique view of our nation's heritage. This volume looks at the
major events, people and stories of the 1870s through photographs
that reveal the essence of those times. The decade of
Victoria's Golden Jubilee saw Britain suffering recession at
home, but forging ahead with expansion abroad. Record numbers left
the British Isles to seek a living, spreading the English language
around the world, but Ireland remained a thorn in Britain's
side as Parliament rejected Gladstone's Home Rule Bill.
Meanwhile, working people began to realise their strength in trade
unions, as the first major strikes were fought and won for better
pay and conditions. Relive these times in the dramatic and moving
pictures presented in this book.
