Format: ebook
Published: September 1st, 2022
Age: Adult
Genre: Non-Fiction – History
Rating: 5/5 Stars
I’ve been able to read a few books more recently which set out to spotlight overlooked historical figures, and they’ve all been pretty great. This is no exception. Abraham and Woolf present these short biographies that show Victorian Britain really wasn’t as monolithic as some (usually racists) like to think. They don’t just stick to ‘high flying’ Black Victorians, either, though they are included, and they make it clear why they highlight the lives of asylum patients alongside abolitionists, composers and those who moved in aristocratic circles.
I really appreciated how the introductions were laid out, with Woolf explaining his own questioning about being the right person to take on such a piece of work (as he’s white), and explaining how he worked with Abraham to get the book right. The opening does a great job of diving into the context of the Victorian era, the approaches taken, and the reasons for spotlighting the specific people they do. The book covers a variety of Black Victorians, as noted above, and takes care to discuss the way history is written – usually by the dominant group – and why certain (marginalised) people tend to get overlooked.
This book really does cover every level of society with great care. The biographies themselves are short, but impactful, and I especially loved how, where possible, they explained what happened to the families of the people featured, how they in some cases continued the work done during this period, or the kind of marks Black Victorians left on history, in a way often overlooked.
A brilliant, wonderfully engaging book that is absolutely worth picking up, no matter if you’re coming at this from a casual perspective or something deeper.
Reading Challenge
Musicals Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt: Oliver – Oom-Pah-Pah – Set during OR about Victorian era (1837 – 1901)
Progress: 10/24
Unwrapping Words 