Simon Heffer’s new book forms an ambitious exploration of the making of the Victorian age and the Victorian mind.

The greatest strength of the book, and its goal, is encouraging readers to rethink their preconceptions of Victorian Britain.

High Minds “is a big book about big personalities who’s ideas and actions influenced massive social change between 1840 and 1900 during the industrial revolution,” said a review on Goodreads.com.

The book has a lot of detail about the battles in parliament that took place to bring about improvements in the provision of education, public health, democracy and women’s rights.

“The arguments deployed for and against these improvements make fascinating reading e.g. those arguing against extending the franchise to the lower classes believed that this would be folly as the ordinary working people were largely uneducated at the time,” said the review.

There is also a lot of information in the book about the struggles to improve the provision of education and whether education should be made compulsory or not.

Heffer covers a multiplicity of themes. He writes fluently, sometimes tendentiously, and deals with his themes in great detail.