This is a study of the people, ideas and events between the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Second Reform Act of 1867. From John Arthur Roebuck and the Crimean War, and Samuel Smiles and the Gospel of Work to Thomas Hughes and the Public Schools and Benjamin Disraeli and the Leap in the Dark, Asa Briggs gives a fresh and stimulating assessment of Victorian achievements. In doing so, he conjures up an enviable picture of the progress and independence of the time. 'A warm and vivid book, as readable as it is well informed' - New York Herald Tribune.