Ella Dzelzainis and Cora Kaplan, Eds. Harriet Martineau: Authorship, Society, and Empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-7190-8133-0. Price: US$84.95/£65.00 (Hardcover)

Over the past three decades, Harriet Martineau scholarship has grown at a steady pace. Beginning in conventional form with biographical and recuperative work on Martineau’s massive body of writing, studies over the past 10 to 15 years have moved towards more theoretical and complex engagements with specific texts. It is tempting to say that with Ella Dzelzainis and Cora Kaplan’s substantive and sophisticated collection of essays on the author’s work, life, and legacy, the study of Harriet Martineau has come of age. Arising out of a one-day conference on Martineau in the spring of 2007 at the Institute for English Studies at the University of London, this collection is divided into three sections as indicated in the subtitle; each segment looks at Martineau’s work through a cultural studies lens, blending consideration of her work, her personal and professional identity, and her impact on Victorian society and beyond in compelling ways. The list of contributors to this volume presents an array of the most significant voices to date in Martineau studies. Few have done more than Deborah A. Logan to bring Martineau’s work into view, with her extensive collection of edited volumes, and most recently her study of Harriet Martineau’s writings on the Irish Question. In this collection her essay in the first section, “Authorship,” addresses Martineau’s correspondence and, more specifically, Martineau’s attempt to control both the reading and the proliferation of her texts. Scholars, Logan notes, have been challenged by the lack of primary texts to work with, while at the same time aware of Martineau’s vast network of correspondents. Martineau’s deep desire to control who read and kept her correspondence is interesting in light of her professional identity and obviously strong ambition. This conflict seems, to me, to go to the heart of Martineau as an historical figure. The “Authorship” section begins with an essay by Linda H. Peterson on Martineau’s contribution to the establishment of the professional woman writer. With this essay several themes emerge that are addressed in a variety of ways throughout the collection: Martineau’s underappreciated contribution to letters, the author’s incredible work ethic and productivity, and her conflicted relationship to questions of genius. A. Lara Stef-Prawn’s essay presents a discussion of Martineau’s construction of genius relative to her deafness. Working to change the vision of genius represented in such, in her eyes, morally questionable figures such as Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, Martineau “constructs a triad between genius, infirmity and morals” (45). Part I finishes up with essays on Martineau’s relationship to Unitarianism and her translation of the work of Auguste Comte. The second section presents four essays on political economy, technology and society, two on Martineau’s landmark Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-34) and two on Martineau’s relationship to trade labor and workplace accidents. Mark Curthoys’ and Tamara Ketabgian’s respective essays create a fascinating discussion of Martineau’s views on labor and trade unions. Martineau’s emphasis on the education and improvement of the working classes, evident in the project of Illustrations, led her to take the wrong side on the debate on trade unions and collective action. Arguing that trade unions inhibited individuals from freely pursuing work—a perspective echoed by politicians in the United States currently pushing right to work laws—Martineau found her “displacement as an authority on the labour question was rapid and comprehensive” (147). However, Curthoys and Ketabgian help us understand Martineau’s logic and, while perhaps not agree, at least sympathize with her perspective on the questions, showing how her point of view arises from her genuine concern for the well-being of the laboring classes. The third section, on empire, race, and nation, …