New Releases by Pamela Horn

This is the first study of Victorian countrywomen of all kinds from teh aristocracy and gentry to the artisan and labouring classes. Previous accounts of nineteenth-century rural life have tended to concentrate on men, an imbalance which this book seeks to rectify. The author examines the mixture of stability and change in these women′s lives, and considers their distinctive role in the shaping of rural England and Wales. Pamela Horn brings to life the daily round of chores and relaxation in manor house, rectory, farm and cottage. Her account provides a fascinating picture of women at work, and her vivid descriptions of the lighter side of country life, including social events, courtship and marriage make particularly captivating reading. The contemporary preoccupation with female domesticity undoubtedly affected women′s social and economics status in their communities. Yet, the author show how the rise of the professions, and the training of women to work as eachers, nurses and midwives gave thema new prominence in rural society widely at variance with the traditional picture of the Victorial wife and mother.

Describes the effect of the Elementary Education Act of 1870 upon the lives of the vast majority of English and Welsh children, the offspring of the working and lower middle classes, who attended elementary school during that period. Some 130 photographs, many not previously published, complement the text. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book traces the nature of change within the country community of England and Wales between 1870 and 1918--a period that was, in many respects, a watershed in British history. Horn reveals the powerful underlying stresses and tensions of rural life: people experienced the anxieties of agricultural recession, the declining influence of the landed classes, the diminishing support for religious institutions, and the disruption of many traditional aspects of rural life.

Schools and teachers of the old type -- The monitorial system -- Pupil-teachers -- Training college life -- The daily round -- Life at the school house -- Tenure problems and old age -- Bread and butter issues -- Combination and trade unionism -- The turn of the century -- Appendices : Rules of the Haslingfield School for Girls c. 1840s ; Conditions at the Central Schools of the National Society for Masters and Mistresses in training, 1833 ; Specimen correspondence concerning entrance to the Borough Road Training School in the 1840s ; A petition against state intervention in education, 1839 ; Education in Wales, 1847 ; The student''s point of view ; Child workers in agriculture and their teachers, in the 1860s ; Extracts from the diaries of William Wright ; Memories of the early twentieth century as a scholar and teacher.