Mark Francis is Professor of Political Science at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He is the author of Governors and Settlers: Images of Authority in the British Colonies, 1820-1860 and A History of English Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century (with John Morrow).
"Victorian biologist and social philospher Spencer has largely been neglected in the literature, and Francis remedies that here. He covers well the many problems in Spencer's life: e.g., his conflicts with his overbearing and troubled father, his inability to form and consummate loving relationships with the women in his life (notably, novelist George Eliot), and his battles with depression, melancholia, insomnia, and hypochondria. Although Francis prefers to call this an "intellectual biography"-and it certainly is that, because much of it deals with the ideas and controversy surrounding the nature of evolution-what sets it apart is its insight into Spencer's inner conflicts and aspects as well. Ours is often referred to as the Age of Anxiety, and in this sense, the picture of the troubled person who emerges here indicates why the author places him squarely in 'modern life.' Recommended for most collections."-Library Journal "A stunning revelation of a personality and thinker whom even most well-informed Victorianists evaluate largely from misinformation. This book presents an entirely new understanding of Spencer. Scholars from a number of fields-philosophy, literature, history, and history of science-will quite simply never be able to think of Spencer as they have before. Wonderfully and persuasively revisionist, backed up by superb research, this will be the book on Spencer for the present and next generation."-Frank M. Turner, John Hay Whitney Professor of History, Yale University "A major new study of Herbert Spencer, revealing aspects of his personality and thought previously little explored. It is an impressive work of scholarship and interpretation that no scholar of nineteenth-century thought can afford to neglect."-David Boucher, Professor of Political Theory, Cardiff University
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