Harriet Martineau’s Writing on British History and Military Reform
General Editor: Deborah Logan
Advisory Editor: Kathryn Sklar
The Pickering Masters
978 1 85196 797 1: 234x156mm: £495.00/$875.00
This edition of Martineau’s history consists primarily of the History of the Peace: Being a History of England from 1816 to 1854, as well as the introductory History of England , AD 1800 to 1815. Martineau’s work thus encompasses British history from the turn of the nineteenth century through the Crimean War. Along with extensive annotations, this edition features a comprehensive introduction discussing Martineau’s life and work, her role as a historian, her pioneering contributions to the emerging discipline of historiography as well as the work’s reception history.
Also included in this edition is Martineau’s England and Her Soldiers and the unpublished correspondence between Martineau and Florence Nightingale. Published in 1859, England and Her Soldiers records an unusual history – the history of military campaigns and policies effecting soldiers’ health, performance and well-being. A life-long advocate of sanitary reform, Martineau responded enthusiastically to Florence Nightingale’s request to collaborate on a work promoting reforms in military hygiene. In England and Her Soldiers, Martineau’s strong narrative dramatises Nightingale’s findings gleaned from the latter’s experiences at Scutari Hospital during the Crimean War. The proposed sanitary reforms addressed conditions in the barracks, hospitals and on the field.
The edition is complemented by Martineau’s leaders on health issues for the Daily News, the Atlantic Monthly and Once a Week which were aimed at generating broader public interest in political and sanitary reforms in the British military, reforms that reflected on the state of the British Empire in the nineteenth century.
Contents
Volumes 1–5
History of the Peace: Being a History of England from 1816 to 1854. With an introduction 1800 to 1815 (1864)
Volume 1 begins with the year 1790 telling the story of the aftermath of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars. Volumes 2–5, cover a period known as the thirty years’ peace which became, unofficially, the forty years’ peace. This was a fascinating period which saw, amongst other things, the impact of industrialism on society, the 1832 Reform Bill, the rise and fall of Chartism and the famine years in Ireland .
Volume 6
England and her Soldiers (1859); Daily News leaders on sanitary reform in the armed forces: ‘Army Hygiene’ (14 January 1859 and 18 January 1859); ‘Royal Commission on the Sanitary Condition of the Army’ (26 January 1859); ‘Reconstitution of the Army Medical Department’ ( 11 February 1859 ); ‘An appeal to the Minister of War: Why the Delay?’(16 February 1859); ‘Sanitary reform for preventable epidemic disease as a matter of national security’ (5 March 1859); ‘Sidney Herbert and barrack reform’ (27 June 1859); ‘Overview of sanitary reform in the military in “Review of the Year”’ (31 December 1859); ‘Health in the Camps’, ‘Health in the Hospitals’, Atlantic Monthly (1861); Previously unpublished correspondence between Martineau and Florence Nightingale addressing health, illness, mortality, preventable disease, and nationalism; Selections from Once a Week: ‘Florence Nightingale’s Latest Charity’ (15 August 1863); ‘The Training of Nurses’ (30 June 1860); ‘3 Woman’s Battlefield’ (3 December 1859); ‘The Soldier and Sailor: Their Health’ (5 January 1861); ‘Nurses Wanted’, Cornhill Magazine (1865); ‘Miss Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing’, Quarterly Review (1860).
Reviews
'Editor Logan offers extensive annotations and updates Martineau's footnotes...the reissuing of Martineau's work will allow scholars to reanalyze her influence on historiography as it was shaped by women in the 19th century.
Summing up: Recommended'
– CHOICE