Ulrich, John M.
(John McAllister Ulrich)

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Corning, NY. Office—Department of English and Modern Languages, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA 16933. E-mail—julrich@mansfield.edu.

CAREER:

Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA, associate professor of English.

WRITINGS:

Signs of Their Times: History, Labor, and the Body in Cobbett, Carlyle, and Disraeli, Ohio University Press (Athens, OH), 2002.

(Editor, with Andrea L. Harris) GenXegesis: Essays on Alternative Youth (Sub)Culture, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 2003.

Contributor to books and scholarly journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

John M. Ulrich's book Signs of Their Times: History, Labor, and the Body in Cobbett, Carlyle, and Disraeli analyzes the writings of William Cobbett, Thomas Carlyle, and Benjamin Disraeli, three nineteenth-century British writers who were primarily concerned with the conditions of life in England and the social issues of that time period. These writers decried not merely the sufferings of the average citizens, but the ways in which industrial capitalism structured the society and virtually guaranteed the poor economic conditions of a significant portion of the population. In a review for Albion, Chris R. Vanden Bossche remarked: "Ulrich does a superb job of demonstrating how these writers understood and critiqued the evolving capitalist culture of the first half of the nineteenth century; at the same time, he recognizes the limitations and boundaries of their critiques." He added that "this book is a valuable addition to the literature on nineteenth-century social criticism," and concluded: "An excellent study in its own right, it also lays the foundation for further study of an important literary tradition."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, summer, 2003, Chris R. Vanden Bossche, review of Signs of Their Times: History, Labor, and the Body in Cobbett, Carlyle, and Disraeli, p. 324.

Nineteenth-Century Contexts, March, 2005, David Hennessee, review of Signs of Their Times.

Victorian Studies, spring, 2003, Herbert Sussman, review of Signs of Their Times, p. 561.