Periodicals of Queen Victoria's Empire: An Exploration edited by J. Don Vann and Rosemary T. Van Arsdel (review)

Reviews127 she says Gaskell's work embodied a model of inferiority which "constituted a prototype for anodier domain — the psychological" (21). She goes on to show how Dickens was highly critical of functional equivalence — the notion diat "every man is an instance of die same self-managing entity" (22). Poovey's book maps out the intellectual shifts and the contradictions and tensions tiierein, in upper-class British society of the nineteenth century. In doing so, she makes a number of fascinating and diought-provoking claims. What die book does not do, however, is to explain how die transformations under discussion were actually achieved. Poovey has performed an important service in focussing on die forces of cohesion in British society, but cohesion was a negotiated process between and among upper-class men and women and diose of die working class. While at a number of points Poovey notes instances of working-class resistance to these notions and die reforms predicated upon them, she makes litde of this in her explanations of the transformations she is discussing. In the end, working-class women and men are litde more dian passive recipients of die dynamics whose development die book traces. Moreover, this book, while important and fascinating, seems to suffer from a too simple binary opposition at its heart. As a number of historians are demonstrating, forces of cohesion and resistance do not constitute polar opposites but are often implicated in one anodier, and indeed, die same impulse can promote both dissention and accommodation depending on circumstances. Mary Poovey has told us very well part of the story of die formation of British culture, but we need to be clear that this is only one part of die story. LYNNMacKAY Trent University J. Don Vann and Rosemary T. Van Arsdel, editors. Periodicals ofQueen Victoria's Empire: An Exploration. Toronto and Buffalo: Toronto UP, 1996. ? + 371. $80.00 CAN (cloth). In their fourth collaboration as editors, J. Don Vann and Rosemary T. Van Arsdel have once again provided an enormously valuable service for scholars doing research in any area of Victorian studies. The essays they commissioned for Periodicals ofQueen Victoria's Empire are die first maps of an almost unexplored territory, rich with contexts, details, 128Victorian Review and — most importantly — suggestions for tapping into die primary source material available in the newspapers and journals diat were produced for and consumed by English-speaking "colonials" around the world. The volume has six substantial chapters: "Australia" by Elizabeth Webby of the University of Sydney; "Canada" by N. Merrill Distad of die University of Alberta Libraries, widi die assistance of Linda M. Distad; "India" by Brahma Chaudhuri, University of Alberta; "New Zealand" by J. Reginald Tye, Victoria University, Wellington; "Soudiern Africa" by Brian D. Cheadle, University of Witwatersrand; and a collective survey of "Outposts of Empire" done by die editors themselves. The depth and sophistication of die essays varies widi die available secondary sources and prior research; some contributors can draw on national bibliographies, computerized databases, and historical studies of die local press while others are attempting to create an initial list of tides and publication dates. To die extent that resources permit, however, die chapters rest on a common framework: a brief introduction to die historical context of colonization, an overview of conditions affecting periodical publication, separate sections on die chief types of journal (newspapers, weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, special interest journals such as sporting or women's magazines, etc.), and a listing and description of guides to research. Under die latter heading, contributors provide information about library holdings, microfilm, databases, and otiier points of access as well as an annotated bibliography of the histories, studies, checklists, finding lists, indexes, or other resources. In some cases (especially Canada and Australia) die work needed to make a developing nation's journals accessible is at least underway and die bibliography is substantial, but in others die contributors to diis volume are themselves doing initial spadework. Of India, for example, Chaudhuri writes that the "vast gold mine of English newspapers and periodicals published in India from 1780 to die present still remains uncharted" (181) and mentions half-adozen journals which could be considered as significant as die Calcutta Review, which...