Published in 1832, Illustrations of Political Economy established Harriet Martineau as both a successful and controversial author and a pioneer of nineteenth-century "social problem" writing. This widely read series of didactic stories popularized political economy, making it accessible to audiences by vividly dramatizing issues such as overpopulation and labour strikes. Illustrations of Political Economy marks a pivotal moment in which literature and politics came together, laying the foundation for the realism and social commentary of later Victorian novels.
This Broadview edition contains a critical introduction and a rich selection of historical documents, including contemporary reviews of Illustrations and writings on population growth, factory conditions, and working-class life.

Deborah Anna Logan is an Associate Professor of English at Western Kentucky University. She is the author of Fallenness in Victorian Women's Writing: Marry, Stitch, Die, or Do Worse (1998) and The Hour and the Woman: Harriet Martineau's 'Somewhat Remarkable' Life (2002). She is also the editor of Writings on Slavery and the American Civil War by Harriet Martineau (2002) and Harriet Martineau's Writing on the British Empire (2004).

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Harriet Martineau: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
Illustrations of Political Economy
Weal and Woe in Garveloch
A Manchester Strike
Cousin Marshall
Sowers not Reapers
Appendix A: Titles and themes of the complete Illustrations of Political Economy
Appendix B: Reform Era Documents
Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)
"An Appeal of the Factory Labourers and their Children" (1832-33)
"The Factory Children" (1831)
James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes (1832)
Peter Gaskell, The Manufacturing Population of England (1833)
Robert Macnish, The Anatomy of Drunkenness (1834)
W. Cooke Taylor, Factories and the Factory System (1844)
Appendix C: Reviews of Illustrations of Political Economy
[Josiah Conder], Eclectic Review 8 (1832)
The Spectator (7 July 1832)
The Spectator (4 August 1832)
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine (August 1832)
The Spectator (8 September 1832)
[William Maginn], Fraser's Magazine (November 1832)
[George Poulett Scrope], The Quarterly Review 49 (1833)
The Monthly Repository 7 (1833)
Edward Bulwer Lytton, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal 37 (1833)
[J.S. Mill], The Monthly Repository 8 (1834)
Further Reading
Select Bibliography