During the half-century from 1870 to 1918 national life was cumulatively revolutionised through new forms of energy, electricity and petro-chemicals, new forms of transport, motor vehicles and the aeroplane, and new forms of communication, the telephone, wireless, and cinema. A companion cultural revolution occurred too, the emergence of a mass reading public. Literary life metamorphosed as a result. The first generation to receive elementary education under the terms of the 1870 Act reached adulthood in the 1890s; at the same time gas-lighting finally reached many working-class homes, real wages and leisure time were progressively enlarged, and new printing and marketing technology facilitated economies of scale in the production and …
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Citation: Waller, Philip John. "Professional Authorship in Britain 1870-1918". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 April 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5813, accessed 18 April 2024.]
