Octavia Hill, social activism and the remaking of British society

252 pages. Temps de lecture estimé 3h09min.
This volume reassesses the life and work of Octavia Hill, housing reformer, open space campaigner, co-founder of the National Trust, founder of the Army Cadet Force, and the first woman to be invited to sit on a royal commission. In her lifetime she was widely regarded as an authority on a broad range of social problems. Yet despite her early pre-eminence, and the remarkable success of the institutions which she helped to found, Hill fell from public favour in the twentieth century. This book provides a nuanced portrait of Hill and her work in a broader context of social change, reflecting recent scholarship on nineteenth-century society in general, and on philanthropy and preservation, and women’s role in them, in particular.Foreword - Dame Helen Ghosh, director general, National Trust I. ‘The habit of seeing and sorting out problems’: Octavia Hill’s life and afterlife1. Octavia Hill: ‘the most misunderstood … Victorian reformer’ - Elizabeth Baigent 2. Octavia Hill: lessons in campaigning - Gillian Darley II. ‘Beauty is for all’: art in the life and work of Octavia Hill 3. Octavia Hill: the practice of sympathy and the art of housing - William Whyte 4. Octavia Hill’s Red Cross Hall and its murals to heroic self-sacrifice - John Price 5. ‘The poor, as well as the rich, need something more than meat and drink’: the vision of the Kyrle Society - Robert Whelan 6. Octavia Hill: the reluctant sitter - Elizabeth Heath III. ‘The value of abundant good air’: Octavia Hill and the meanings of nature 7. Octavia Hill, nature and open space: crowning success or campaigning ‘utterly without result’ - Elizabeth Baigent8. Octavia Hill and the English landscape - Paul Readman IV. ‘A common inheritance from generation to generation’: Octavia Hill and preservation 9. ‘To every landless man, woman and child in England’: Octavia Hill and the preservation movement - Astrid Swenson 10. Octavia Hill and the National Trust - Melanie Hall V. ‘The loving zeal of individuals which cannot be legislated for by Parliament’: Octavia Hill’s vision in historical context 11. At home in the metropolis: gender and ideals of social service - Jane Garnett 12. Octavia Hill, Beatrice Webb, and the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, 1905–9: a mid Victorian in an Edwardian world - Lawrence Goldman VI. Hill’s legacy13. ‘Some dreadful buildings in Southwark’: a tour of nineteenth-century social housing - William Whyte 14. For the benefit of the nation: politics and the early National Trust - Ben Cowell