(book review)And one last book in the "World Leaders: Past and Present" series that I picked up from Oita Library on my last visit into Oita City.
Aside from recognizing the name, I knew absolutely nothing about Queen Victoria before reading this book. In fact, whenever I think of Queen Victoria, all I can think of is that Kinks song. (And by the way, what a great song that is. Check it out on Youtube here if you haven't heard it yet--From my favorite Kinks Album: "Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire. The other tracks are worth a listen as well).
What was I talking about again?
Ah, yes, needless to say, I learned a lot from this book.
Queen Victoria is an interesting figure--as much for the age she lived in as for herself. After all, 19th Century England saw the rise of the British Empire and such colorful figures as David Livingston, Cecil Rhodes, and Chinese Gordon (who are all mentioned in this book). It set the age of imperialism, the ramifications of which we are still living through in this day and age.
And the era of the steam engine, which brought exotic lands much closer together fired up the imagination of people like Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Burroughs. So when reading about this age of colonial empires, the 12 year old boy inside me can help help but remember fondly all the jungle adventure movies I saw as a child, even though the adult in me knows most of them are politically incorrect.
It was also the age of the industrial revolution, horrible conditions for the working class, and the rise of Socialism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were both living and writing in Victorian England (and both are mentioned briefly in this little book as well).
What I didn't know about before, and what was interesting to learn about, was Queen Victoria's personal life.
For example, I learned that at first her accession to the throne was far from certain, and the plotting her mother did to ensure her ascendancy. I also learned about the Keningston System her mother devised to try and keep Victoria under control and regulate who had access to her, and how this would later backfire on her mother and cause the adult Victoria to distance herself from her.
I learned how a young Queen Victoria caused a political crisis and accidentally toppled a Tory government when she refused to remove her chambermaids.
And Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, from Saxe-Coburg, and her devastation when he died.
And how Prince Albert helped keep England out of the US civil war, and avoided a crisis when the Union captured the British ship Trent.
How Victoria loved Disraeli, the leader of the conservatives, and hated Gladstone, the leader of the liberals. And how she asked for, and was given, the title of "Empress of India".
All in all, it was a very informative little book.
Link of the Day
Holding Obama Accountable, Part 2 of a Series -- Single Payer Health Care and the Auto Industry
World Leaders Past and Present: Series Overview (Scripted)
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