Fatherhood is a new area of investigation in literary, historical and cultural studies. This lively collection penetrates the stereotype of the Victorian paterfamilias to reveal intimate and involved, authoritarian and austere fathers. Examining how paternal power was embedded in social institutions, it argues that fatherhood invoked more anxiety and debate than hitherto acknowledged. As these innovative, interdisciplinary essays show, the history of fatherhood can illuminate our understanding of class society and empire as well as gender and the family.