Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a professor of modern Britain with a specialty in nineteenth-century social history. Iā€™m drawn to sources and topics that tell us about how everyday people lived and thought about their lives. One favorite part of my job is the challenge of discovering more about those groups, like working-class women or children, who werenā€™t the main focus of earlier histories. Since 2000, Iā€™ve taught classes at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Victorian Britain, the British Empire, the First World War, and the history of childhood.


I wrote

Daily Life of Victorian Women

By Lydia Murdoch,

Book cover of Daily Life of Victorian Women

What is my book about?

It explores the lived experiences of Victorian women in the home, the workplace, and the empire, as well as theā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands

Lydia Murdoch Why did I love this book?

I love this book for what it teaches us about the global nineteenth century and the complexities of identity.

Seacole traveled widely as a medical practitionerā€”from Kingston to London, Cruces to the Crimea, and eventually settled in England. Identifying herself as a ā€œdoctress,ā€ an ā€œunprotected female,ā€ and ā€œMother Seacole,ā€ she underscored the plasticity of Victorian gender ideals of separate spheres as she claimed her role on the battlefront.

She condemned the racism she faced as a Black Creole woman, yet also supported the British empire. Most of all, as my students often point out, she had the bravery to tell her own story.

By Mary Seacole, Sara Salih (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Written in 1857, this is the autobiography of a Jamaican woman whose fame rivalled Florence Nightingale's during the Crimean War. Seacole's offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, Seacole set out independently to the Crimea where she acted as doctor and 'mother' to wounded soldiers while running her business, the 'British Hotel'. A witness to key battles, she gives vivid accounts of how she coped with disease, bombardment and other hardships at the Crimean battlefront.
"In her introduction to the very welcome Penguin edition, Sara Salih expertly analyses the rhetorical complexities ofā€¦


Book cover of Caroline Norton's Defense: English Laws for Women in the 19th Century

Lydia Murdoch Why did I love this book?

Iā€™m captivated by Caroline Nortonā€™s spirit and contradictions. She fought against inequality in English laws regarding child custody, marriage, divorce, contracts, property, and wages. But she continually maintained that she was against the idea of womenā€™s suffrage or equality with men, writing instead that she claimed only one right: the right of womenā€™s protection under the law.

I appreciate how she makes us think about the law in new ways, and also admire her candid writing about domestic violence. When her brutal husband destroyed her letters, attacked her, and took away her children and her income, she promised that as long as he held her copyrights, all her future writings would address only the issue of women and the law.

By Caroline Norton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Caroline Norton's Defense as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This account of the author's experience at the hands of an "imperfect state of law" in early 19th-century England makes a passionate plea for equal justice for women. Largely as a result of this book the passage of the Married Women's Property Act and reform of the English Marriage and Divorce Laws occurred some years later.


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Book cover of Welcome To The Hamilton: A Hotel Hamilton Novel

Welcome To The Hamilton by Tanya E. Williams,

Two sisters. One opulent hotel. A chance to change everything.

For 17-year-old Clara Wilson, the glamour of the Roaring Twenties feels worlds away. With her family on the brink of eviction, Clara pins her hopes on a position at the grand Hotel Hamilton. But when her adventurous sister impulsively followsā€¦

Book cover of The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick: Victorian Maidservant

Lydia Murdoch Why did I love this book?

This is one of the first books that I remember buying for myself in graduate school. Cullwickā€™s descriptions of her relationship with upper-class Arthur Munby (whom she eventually married) and the photographs of her dressed as a maid-of-all-work, a lady, a ā€œslave,ā€ an agricultural worker, and a valet highlight Victorian power negotiations and performativity.

Cullwick started working as a servant at the age of eight. From her diaries, I learned much about the daily lives of domestic servants: their relationships with employers, the different levels of service and employment networks, and the sheer amount of hard, physical labor that it took to run a Victorian household.

By Liz Stanley, Hannah Cullwick,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Hannah Cullwick (1833-1909) worked all her life as a maidservant, scullion, and pot-girl. In 1854 she met Arthur Munby, 'man of two worlds,' upper-class author and poet, with a lifelong obsession for lower-class women. And so began their strange and secret romance of eighteen years and marriage of thiry-six, lived largely apart. Hannah's diaries, written on Munby's suggestion, offer an obsorbing account of life 'below stairs' in Victorian England. But they reveal, too, a woman of extraordinary independence of will, whose chosen life of drudgery gave her the freedom not to 'play the Lady,' as Munby demanded. Rescued from obscurity.ā€¦


Book cover of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management: The 1861 Classic with Advice on Cooking, Cleaning, Childrearing, Entertaining, and More

Lydia Murdoch Why did I love this book?

Yes, this is a domestic guide on how to create the ideal household, but itā€™s so much more than that!

I love that Beeton opens her book by comparing the mistress of the house to an army commander. The book includes hundreds of recipes, along with all kinds of domestic advice: how to hire servants, how to purchase a house, how to revive a child from a coma, how to set a broken bone, and how to treat opium overdose.

Best of all is the irony that the author of this middle-class domestic ideal worked outside the home alongside her publisher husband not only on The Book of Household Management but also as journalist and co-editor of The Englishwomanā€™s Domestic Magazine.

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Book cover of Fresh Eggs and Dog Beds: Living the Dream in Rural Ireland

Fresh Eggs and Dog Beds by Nick Albert,

Nick and Lesley Albert yearn to leave the noise, stress and pollution of modern Britain and move to the countryside, where the living is good, the air sweet, with space for their dogs to run free.

Suddenly out of work and soon to be homeless, they set off in searchā€¦

Book cover of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

Lydia Murdoch Why did I love this book?

I had read about the protest that Ellen and William Craft staged along with other abolitionists at the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition of 1851 and wanted to know more, which is what led me to this book.

Woo expertly brings attention to the international networks of abolitionist activism and to the intersections of gender, race, and class, starting with Ellen Craftā€™s escape from slavery dressed as an elite white man.

I also appreciate that Woo models how to write about complex theoretical ideas and histories with clarity and precision while telling a powerful story. The book is a page-turner!

By Ilyon Woo,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Master Slave Husband Wife as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as "his" slave.

In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of theā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Daily Life of Victorian Women

By Lydia Murdoch,

Book cover of Daily Life of Victorian Women

What is my book about?

It explores the lived experiences of Victorian women in the home, the workplace, and the empire, as well as the ideals of womanhood and femininity during the 19th century. Contrary to popular misconception, many Victorian women performed manual labor for wages directly alongside men, had a political voice before women's suffrage, and otherwise contributed significantly to society outside of the domestic sphere.

The book covers key social, intellectual, and geographical aspects of women's lives, with main chapters on gender and ideals of womanhood, the state, religion, home and family, the body, childhood and youth, paid labor and professional work, urban life, and imperialism.

Book cover of Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands
Book cover of Caroline Norton's Defense: English Laws for Women in the 19th Century
Book cover of The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick: Victorian Maidservant

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