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.