Martineau, Harriet

Harriet Martineau (1802–76) was one of the most prolific authors of the Victorian era, her career spanning a half‐century of writing. Her earliest literary success –Illustrations of Political Economy(1832–34), didactic tales examining the social impact of industrialization – was a key transitional genre bridging Romantic and Victorian novel aesthetics. Widely traveled, Martineau – termed “the first woman sociologist” – wrote analyses of antebellum America, Egypt and the Middle East, and postfamine Ireland; she wrote history, “popularized” Comtean Positive philosophy, and earned the title “first and greatest of women journalists.” Her lifewriting includes autobiography, self‐help literature, and many thousands of letters. Through an orientation predicated on Enlightenment humanism, Martineau's contributions to intellectual history are by definition interdisciplinary.