Victorian Dundee
Image and Realities
Will be published approx. on 31. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
396 pages
978-1-3995-6367-3 (ISBN)
Description
Victorian Dundee: a city grown prosperous on more than a century's lead in linen production and for a time the world's jute capital - 'Juteopolis'. But textile production was accompanied by a strong sense of civic pride, some remarkable architectural triumphs and perhaps a surprising enthusiasm for public and private art.
The traditional view of Dundee in this period is of a grim industrial town marred by social deprivation and riven by workplace conflict. This was only part of the story, and comes later. Early Victorian Dundee provided regular work and better wages than had been paid in the countryside (many of the town's inhabitants were migrants). Working people enjoyed spending money as well as earning it and were able to enjoy a range of social amenities such as the town's grand parks.
This book, the first edition of which attracted very favourable reviews, reveals aspects of Dundee that have been hidden from history. This second, extended edition of Victorian Dundee: Image and Realities goes further than the 2000 edition in challenging myth-history. Included are two altogether new chapters. One is on the development - and desecration - of Dundee's ancient waterfront, resulting from the opening of new rail routes. The other reveals who Dundee' s local heroes were, in the shape of the public statues erected in Albert Square. Original chapters have been revised whilst in addition the book is supplemented by more than forty new illustrations that offer fresh and sometimes stunning visual perspectives on a great Scottish city.
This is the third in the series Dundee - A New History, the others being Jute No More: Transforming Dundee which span Dundee's history from the sixteenth century to the present. Dundee: Renaissance to Enlightenment.
The traditional view of Dundee in this period is of a grim industrial town marred by social deprivation and riven by workplace conflict. This was only part of the story, and comes later. Early Victorian Dundee provided regular work and better wages than had been paid in the countryside (many of the town's inhabitants were migrants). Working people enjoyed spending money as well as earning it and were able to enjoy a range of social amenities such as the town's grand parks.
This book, the first edition of which attracted very favourable reviews, reveals aspects of Dundee that have been hidden from history. This second, extended edition of Victorian Dundee: Image and Realities goes further than the 2000 edition in challenging myth-history. Included are two altogether new chapters. One is on the development - and desecration - of Dundee's ancient waterfront, resulting from the opening of new rail routes. The other reveals who Dundee' s local heroes were, in the shape of the public statues erected in Albert Square. Original chapters have been revised whilst in addition the book is supplemented by more than forty new illustrations that offer fresh and sometimes stunning visual perspectives on a great Scottish city.
This is the third in the series Dundee - A New History, the others being Jute No More: Transforming Dundee which span Dundee's history from the sixteenth century to the present. Dundee: Renaissance to Enlightenment.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
62 black and white illustrations, 22 colour illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 170 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-6367-3 (9781399563673)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Christopher A. Whatley OBE, FRSE, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Dundee. He is the author of the award-winning The Scots and the Union (EUP, 2006 and 2014), and co-edited Edinburgh University Press's History of Everyday Life in Scotland series. Long interested in Dundee's history he has co-edited and written several books on the city.
Christopher A. Whatley OBE, FRSE, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Dundee. He is the author of the award-winning The Scots and the Union (EUP, 2006 and 2014), and co-edited Edinburgh University Press's History of Everyday Life in Scotland series. Long interested in Dundee's history he has co-edited and written several books on the city.
Bob Harris held a personal chair in British History at the University of Dundee until 2006, since when he has been Fellow and Tutor in History at Worcester College, University of Oxford. He has published widely on eighteenth-century British and Irish political, social and cultural history. His most recent book was The Scottish People and the French Revolution, published in 2008. Between 2011-14, he has been vice chair of the Board of the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford.
Christopher A. Whatley OBE, FRSE, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Dundee. He is the author of the award-winning The Scots and the Union (EUP, 2006 and 2014), and co-edited Edinburgh University Press's History of Everyday Life in Scotland series. Long interested in Dundee's history he has co-edited and written several books on the city.
Bob Harris held a personal chair in British History at the University of Dundee until 2006, since when he has been Fellow and Tutor in History at Worcester College, University of Oxford. He has published widely on eighteenth-century British and Irish political, social and cultural history. His most recent book was The Scottish People and the French Revolution, published in 2008. Between 2011-14, he has been vice chair of the Board of the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford.
Content
List of Figures, List of Plates, List of Tables, Preface and Acknowledgements, List of Contributors
Introduction: Altering Images by Christopher A. Whatley, Bob Harris and Louise Miskell
1 'Not even the trivial grace of a straight Line'
Or Why Dundee Never Built a New Town by Charles McKean
2 The Growth and Development of the Port of Dundee in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries by William Kenefick
3 Civic Leadership and the Manufacturing Elite: Dundee, 1820-1870 by Louise Miskell
4 Altering Images of the Industrial City: The Case of James Myles, the 'Factory Boy', and Mid-Victorian Dundee by Christopher A. Whatley
5 'From the Grampians to the Firth of Forth': The Development of the Dundee Royal Infirmary by Lorraine Walsh
6 'An Insurrection of Maids': Domestic Servants and the Agitation of 1872 by Jan Merchant
7 The Grey Lady: Mary Lily Walker of Dundee by Myra Baillie
8 Docks, Railways or Institutions: Competing Images for Mid-Nineteenth-Century Dundee by Rob Duck and Charles McKean
9 Contesting Memory and Public Spaces: Albert Square and Dundee's Pantheon of Heroes by Christopher A. Whatley
10 The Patron, the Professor and the Painter: Cultural Activity in Dundee at the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Murdo MacDonald
11 Red Tayside? Political Change in Early Twentieth-Century Dundee by John Kemp
12 'City of the Future': James Thomson's Vision of the City Beautiful by Bob Harris
Notes, Index
Introduction: Altering Images by Christopher A. Whatley, Bob Harris and Louise Miskell
1 'Not even the trivial grace of a straight Line'
Or Why Dundee Never Built a New Town by Charles McKean
2 The Growth and Development of the Port of Dundee in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries by William Kenefick
3 Civic Leadership and the Manufacturing Elite: Dundee, 1820-1870 by Louise Miskell
4 Altering Images of the Industrial City: The Case of James Myles, the 'Factory Boy', and Mid-Victorian Dundee by Christopher A. Whatley
5 'From the Grampians to the Firth of Forth': The Development of the Dundee Royal Infirmary by Lorraine Walsh
6 'An Insurrection of Maids': Domestic Servants and the Agitation of 1872 by Jan Merchant
7 The Grey Lady: Mary Lily Walker of Dundee by Myra Baillie
8 Docks, Railways or Institutions: Competing Images for Mid-Nineteenth-Century Dundee by Rob Duck and Charles McKean
9 Contesting Memory and Public Spaces: Albert Square and Dundee's Pantheon of Heroes by Christopher A. Whatley
10 The Patron, the Professor and the Painter: Cultural Activity in Dundee at the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Murdo MacDonald
11 Red Tayside? Political Change in Early Twentieth-Century Dundee by John Kemp
12 'City of the Future': James Thomson's Vision of the City Beautiful by Bob Harris
Notes, Index