This archive of source materials from Victorian periodicals provides insight into the evolving moral and political thought of Britain in the 1800s, and highlights some striking anticipations of modern views.
Included are writings by major utilitarian thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Henry Sidgwick, as they meet their critics in open debate in journals and reviews.
The volumes are divided chronologically: 1800-1851, 1852-1869, 1869-1875 and 1876-1900. The concentration of material in the 1860s and 1870s makes it clear that this was the high water mark of the utilitarian debate.