This is a major study of Victorian society by one of our leading historians, the product of immensely wide reading and mature consideration. It offers a synthesis of the mass of new research material which has appeared since G. M. Young’s Portrait of an Age and G. D. H. Cole’s The Common People half a century ago… Each chapter is an excellent, authoritative and elegant résumé, and will be invaluable to the student and of much interest to what used to be called the intelligent lay reader.

Anyone with more than a passing interest in nineteenth-century Britain should be grateful for The Rise of Respectable Society… [It is] culled from a broad and scrupulous reading of the relevant historical literature… With its generous scope and its well-considered selection of details, the rewards of…[an] energetic perusal of The Rise of Respectable Society can be great.

In both content and style [Thompson] sets a high standard for his fellow authors to follow… Packed with interesting and challenging examples and reflections… [Thompson has] fitted recent research into an impressive framework that will long remain a starting point for future discussion.

A stunning example of the art of integrative and synthetic scholarship. Whether he is handling quantitative economic or demographic data, dealing with a problem of Victorian birth control and family planning, or weaving his way through the maze of Victorian attitudes towards sexuality, Thompson is always crystal clear. This is an overview by a very sophisticated and mature historian, and a humane and modest one too.