Harriet Martineau responds to the strong revival of interest in her life and writing, exploring Martineau?s controversial views through her innovative use of popular cultural forms--journalism, travel writing, didactic fiction, novels, translation, autobiography, and history. This is the first collection of essays to revisit and reassess Martineau?s leading place in Victorian culture and in the development of nineteenth-century liberalism. Distinguished contributors--including Isobel Armstrong, Lauren Goodlad, Catherine Hall, Deborah Logan and Linda Peterson--offer critical analyses of her trailblazing career as a professional "oman of letters." The essays collected here move from personal to global concerns in Martineau?s oeuvre. The opening essays center on her bold self-fashioning as a writer, while the second section focuses on the domestic complexities of laissez-faire liberalism in her economic and social vision. Finally, the volume analyzes her provocative writings on race, empire, and history--from Atlantic slavery to the Indian Mutiny--demonstrating the international breadth and impact of a remarkable career.