The Nonconformists of England and Wales, the Protestants outside the
Church of England, were particularly numerous in the Victorian years.
These Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians, and
others helped shape society and made their mark in politics. This book
explains the main characteristics of each denomination and examines the
circumstances that enabled them to grow. It evaluates the main academic
hypothesis about their role and points to signs of their subsequent
decline in the twentieth century. Here is a succinct account of an
important dimension of the Christian past in Britain.