George Hudson was the greatest British railway entrepreneur of the 19th century. In 1848, he controlled over 1,000 miles of railway and, when it came to railway promotion, it seemed he could do no wrong. However, in early 1849 it came to light that some of his business methods had been less than ethical and he was forced to relinquish the chairmanship of each of his companies. His fall from grace was spectacular and his detractors, of whom there were many, were quick to denounce him as a fraudster, a charlatan and a crook. Even today, when the name George Hudson is mentioned, these same insults are often levelled at him. This new biography takes a fresh look at Hudson’s extraordinary life, from his humble beginnings as a farmer’s boy, to becoming Lord Mayor of York before catching the railway bug. He was MP for Sunderland between 1845 and 1859. After his fall from grace, Hudson endured a 20-year court battle with the York and North Midland Railway (subsequently the North Eastern Railway) for outstanding debts. Hudson made many mistakes in creating his railway empire, but did he deserve all the vitriol that still accompanies his reputation? In seeking to answer this question, Matthew Wells looks at the evidence, including what was said about Hudson during his lifetime and what Hudson himself had to say about the actions he took.

* The Robert Maxwell of the nineteenth century * Victorian England 's greatest capitalist * Brought down by a shareholder 's question The building of the railways in Britain in the nineteenth century was the greatest ever industrial undertaking in the world to that time.Financed by private enterprise rather than the state, the schemes to build new lines were characterised both by their ambition and by their need for huge amounts of capital.The most ambitious of all of the individual entrepreneurs, and for long the most successful, was George Hudson, the 'Railway King ', whose establishment of York as the hub of an ever-growing network of lines brought him huge wealth and great fame. Already a wealthy businessman and Lord Mayor of York before the advent of the railways, Hudson seized the opportunity they presented with both hands.He became an MP, lived in style and entertained lavishly.While his early lines were profitable, later ones were not.Ever more deeply committed, at a time when accounting standards were lax, he hid inconvenient figures until brought down by a question at a shareholders 'meeting in 1849.Disgraced, he fled to the Continent, his name synonymous with fraudulent capitalism at its most brazen.This new biography is the fullest examination to date of an extraordinary and complex man and his career.

Coverage of canonical and less-explored texts in fiction, film and museology. Innovative vision of how Gothic evokes the regions of Great Britain. The first work to consider Gothic and the regional experience at length.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the outstanding public event of the Victorian era. Housed in Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, it presented a vast array of objects, technologies and works of art from around the world. The sources in this edition provide a depth of context for study into the Exhibition.

This is an innovative study of middle-class behaviour and property relations in English towns in Georgian and Victorian Britain. Through the lens of wills, family papers, property deeds, account books and letters, the author offers a reading of the ways in which middle-class families survived and surmounted the economic difficulties of early industrial society. He argues that these were essentially 'networked' families created and affirmed by a 'gift' network of material goods, finance, services and support, with property very much at the centre of middle-class survival strategies. His approach combines microhistorical studies of individual families with a broader analysis of the national and even international networks within which these families operated. The result is a significant contribution to the history, and to debates about the place of structural and cultural analysis in historical understanding.

This book explores Sara Coleridge's critical intelligence and theoretical reach. It shows her in various critical guises: editing works by her father, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, commenting on her own poetry and prose, and writing diversely brilliant criticism of classical and English literature.

David Spurling believes that a sociology book should enable the reader to understand social problems. Spurling uses his background, including research on the single homeless to look at sociological perspectives and research methods. The book looks at the variety of perspectives including Marxism, functionalism, feminism and neo-liberalism. His transport background, as both a worker and a lecturer, is reflected in the chapters on urbanism. A sociology book that claims to be comprehensive but ignores climate change would be nonsensical as it is the most important problem for current and future generations; therefore this book discusses this issue and what to do about it. Spurlings chapter on crime looks at the importance of crime to the victims, using statistics, so that it presents a different perspective to many other books. The chapter on race reflects the ways in which perceptions of immigration have little relationship to the actual data available and also the way in which the media has a great influence on public opinion. Spurling uses his examiner experience, as well as teaching experience, to examine the different aspects of the educational system. The chapter on religion reflects the wide variety of views on this subject. As a Quaker, Spurlings views on religion have a Quaker perspective. The hatred towards people of other religions or no religion is also examined in both contemporary and past societies. The influence of education and attitudes towards it are examined. Spurling has also included a chapter of questions and answers. This book would be ideal for first-year university students, including the University of London International Degree, as well as for A-Level students looking for different material. Learning Through Cooperation Ltd hopes that this book will provide support to anyone sitting their exams. For more details on how Learning Through Cooperation can help you, please visit www.davidjohnspurling.com.

By interlacing the threads of managerial development through the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries, from capitalist managerialism to the emergence of management consultancy and management education, with particular focus on the American context, this book sheds light on the opportunities, challenges, and pitfalls facing the modern manager today. Especially relevant to aspiring managers seeking to learn more about business, serious questions are asked about management education and its provision. Providing an exposé on (and denunciation of) managerial fallacies, management failures, academic treachery, and greed, the author directly addresses the need for professional managers, to cope with the challenges on this planet to come. With a deep historical knowledge, breadth of vision and equally intellectually daring insight, the author offers the keys not only to an understanding of how we have reached our current position, but more importantly, how we might progress from here. This book sets the tone and heralds the need for real, practical, decisive change, leading to a more ethical, sustainable future.