announcer 1: on "lectures in history," townsend university akim reinhardt teaches a story about victorian culture in the u.s. in the last half of the 20th century. he describes the societal customs of the upper and emerging middle class and established gender norms for the time period. they talked about how the conventions created expectations that covered behavior, dress, work, and home life. his class is about an hour. akim reinhardt: all right, this is a picture of queen victoria, queen of england from 1837 until 1901. for a very long time, she was the longest reigning monarch in british history. she was only recently surpassed by queen elizabeth ii, who is 90 years old and has been on the throne since 1952.

announcer 1: on "lectures in history," townsend university akim reinhardt teaches a story about victorian culture in the u.s. in the last half of the 20th century. he describes the societal customs of the upper and emerging middle class and established gender norms for the time period. they talked about how the conventions created expectations that covered behavior, dress, work, and home life. his class is about an hour. akim reinhardt: all right, this is a picture of queen victoria, queen of england from 1837 until 1901. for a very long time, she was the longest reigning monarch in british history. she was only recently surpassed by queen elizabeth ii, who is 90 years old and has been on the throne since 1952. so what does all of that have to do with american history after the civil war? well, to be honest not a whole , lot. but her name does refer to a period in both european and american history that witnessed important and far-reaching changes to american and european culture. now the timeframe of victorian , culture as we call it often coincides with her reign, those years of 1837 to