Examining the major literary and scientific works it produced, Gail Marshall reveals how 1859 was innovatory yet conflicted about change.

The year 1859 produced major works by writers including George Eliot, Charles Darwin, and Charles Dickens. They represent some of the greatest literary, political, social, and scientific achievements of the Victorian period, and have come to embody a substantial part of what we mean by the term 'Victorian'. In Britain in 1859: Custom, History, Modernity, these enduring texts are read alongside key events of the year; other significant publications from authors such as Collins, Smiles, Mill, Tennyson, and Beeton; and newspapers and periodicals. Gail Marshall reveals a year which was innovatory but also deeply conflicted about how to accommodate and acknowledge change within contemporary thought and practice. Custom, as the year's predominant and most readily available historical form, enabled the Victorians of 1859 to negotiate with the past as they faced the future.