Nineteenth-Century Communications: A Documentary History, 1780–1918

This volume illuminates some of the manifold ways in which Britain’s communication infrastructure affected everyday life in nineteenth-century Britain. Accordingly, it highlights socio-economic, cultural, and material repercussions of selected aspects of mediated communication. It covers:

• The rise and role of the communication worker and the Post Office’s status as Britain’s largest employer as well as pioneering employer of women.

• The campaigns surrounding Sunday labour.

• The connections between new leisure opportunities and activities and new media of communication such as the postcard.

• Concerns about morally suspect uses of new media and technologies of communication, e.g. the use of the telegraph for gambling.

• The presence of changing communication practices in material culture, e.g. the increasing popularity of greeting cards and new types of stationery.