The circulation of periodicals and newspapers is thought to have been larger and more influential than that of books in Victorian society. J. Don Vann and Rosemary T. VanArsdel have brought together commissioned bibliographical essays on Victorian periodical literature by some of the world's greatest experts in the field, whose contributions support this view.

The essayists guide the reader into avenues for exploring Victorian society and the professions (law, medicine, architecture, the military, science); the arts (music, illustration, theatre, authorship and the book trade); occupations and commerce (transport, finance, trade, advertising, agriculture); popular culture (temperance, sport, comic periodicals); and both lower- and upper-class journals (workers' and university students').

They seek to identify the ways that periodicals informed, instructed, and amused virtually all of the people in the many segments of Victorian life.

The periodicals demonstrate the emergence of professionalism in the various areas of human endeavour. Professional societies were formed to regulate each discipline and each had its own journal or journals. The growth of professionalism also dictated a rapid pace of change in Victorian society, and change, in turn, demanded closer and more accurate communication of new ideas through periodical literature.