SOURCE: Robson, Ann. Review of The De-Moralization of Society, by Gertrude Himmelfarb. American Historical Review 101, no. 3 (June 1996): 810.

In the following review of The De-Moralization of Society, Robson applauds Himmelfarb's examination of Victorian morality as a lesson for modern times.

Gertrude Himmelfarb's book [The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values] is as much about her own society as about Victorian England. A superficial judgment might describe it simply as a book in praise of the Victorians, but Himmelfarb does not write for the superficial reader. There is, indeed, much praise and understanding of Victorian ideals and achievements: the manners and morals they proclaimed (and mostly practiced) to make an urban society tolerable and increasingly civilized; the wholesome belief, almost a faith, in family and home; the high regard for women's particular qualities and a desire to preserve them; their approach to the problem of poverty; the...