The Civilising Offensive

"This volume offers a multifaceted selection of studies on 19th-century Belgian reformers and initiatives they instigated to solve the ‘social question’ by ‘civilising’ and moralising the lower classes. Around 1850 Belgium was continental Europe’s most heavily industrialised state. From the mid-century until the Belle Époque many international social reform associations were based in Belgium, as well as their main international actors. This book aims to place the history of social, moral and edu