The book views the 'hungry forties' through the writings of the conservative Thomas Carlyle, the liberal John Stuart Mill and the socialist Friedrich Engels. It is unsurprising that one of the most fraught decades of modern British history produced socio-political literature of such interest and intensity. The rapid growth of industrial cities, the emergence of working-class organizations and rising middle class power as well as revolutions abroad in 1848 made this a tumultuous time. These writers provide extensive, diverse and high quality reflections on the tensions produced in this key period of transition to an industrial, democratic society.