Asa Briggs (Lord Briggs of Lewes) is one of today's best known historians. In his distinguished career he has been a Fellow and Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex and Chancellor of the Open University. He is president of the Social History Society, the Victorian Society and the Bronte Society.

A survey of Victorian material culture completing a trilogy with the author's two earlier studies, "Victorian Cities" and "Victorian People". The author examines the objects and the way in which they express and reflect the preoccupations of Victorian society. Sections include information on museums and exhibitions, spectacles and camera, commemorative artifacts, home furnishings and decoration, matches, hats, coal, stamps, telephones and typewriters. The book is intended to raise important theoretical issues in such areas as cultural anthropology, the history of taste, semiology and semiotics.