Nineteenth Century

The Nineteenth Century and After

The Nineteenth Century was a widely circulated British monthly periodical which contained articles on literature, politics and the burning issues of the day. In 1901 the words And After were appended to its title.

The magazine was set up in 1877 by the architect and journalist Sir James Knowles. As its first editor, he promoted the principles of rapprochement between religion and science that he had already ordained at his foundation of the Metaphysical Society. Making use of his personal contacts, he built up a list of contributors that embraced many of the most distinguished public figures of the era. South Asian contributors included Rafiuddin Ahmad, Syed Ameer Ali, Devendra N. Das and Cornelia Sorabji.

The Nineteenth Century’s success marked the advent of the new breed of monthly review which displaced the quarterlies from the drawing-room. Such was the authority and standing it attained that in 1882 it played a significant role in arresting proposals for a Channel tunnel by publishing a petition signed by assorted military and civilian notables who argued that the tunnel would present an intolerable risk of foreign invasion. Probably the magazine’s most famous remark was printed shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914 the periodical decreed that ‘the only court in which nations' issues can and will be tried is the court of God, which is war’.