Prologue: Dr. Arnold of Rugby

part I. The condition of England: The angry forties : agitation and riot ; Noblesse oblige : politics and the aristocracy ; The ascent of the bourgeosie : radicalism and the end of the corn laws ; Chartism : the rise of working class politics

part II. The Victorian mind. The Godly mind : national apostasy and the Victorian church ; The doubting mind : struggles in the sea of faith ; The rational mind : intellectuals and the growth of secularism ; The political mind : high principle and low ambition ; The progressive mind : the great exhibition and its legacy ; The heroic mind : Albert and the cult of the great man

part III. The transformation of Britain: The leap in the dark : reform and the coming of democracy ; Broadening minds : the battle for education ; The end of privilege : inventing the meritocracy ; The rights of women : divorce, the vote and education

part IV. The birth of the modern: The pursuit of perfection : Victorian intellectuals and the new Britain ; Doing good : philanthropists and the humane impulse ; The way we live now : the creation of the Victorian city ; A glimpse of the Gothic : founding a national style ; The reforming mind : Parliament and the advance of civilisation

Epilogue.