The Victorian Eye
A Political History of Light and Vision in Britain, 1800-1910
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Light, Vision, and Power
1. The Victorian Eye: The Physiology, Sociology, and Spatiality of Vision, 1800-1900
2. Oligoptic Engineering: Light and the Victorian City
3. The Age of Inspectability: Vision, Space, and the Victorian City
4. The Government of Light: Gasworks, Gaslight, and Photometry
Conclusion: Patterns of Perception
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“The Victorian Eye is a spectacular debut. Meticulously researched, theoretically imaginative, and elegantly written, it should be read by all those interested in the histories of vision, technology, the environment, and liberal government. A thoughtful, provocative, and often funny book, this is history as it should be written.”
“This excellent volume offers an important new historicist interpretation of the interaction of technology, vision, and power in the late nineteenth century. Otter dexterously evinces the new socio-technical patterns of perception that emerged in the British liberal state as its urban environments were transformed by the arrival of gas and electric lighting. This work is essential reading, especially for those dissatisfied with twentieth-century clichés of the panopticon and the flâneur as modes of appreciating the nexus of materiality, mobility, and management in civic life.”
American Historical Association: Morris D. Forkosch Prize
Won
Northeast Victorian Studies Association: Sonya Rudikoff Award
Won
History: British and Irish History | European History | History of Ideas
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory
Political Science: Urban Politics
Psychology: General Psychology
Sociology: Urban and Rural Sociology
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.