 The literary historian Kate Thomas sees Isabella as " a powerful force in the making of middle @-@ class Victorian domesticity " , while the Oxford University Press , advertising an abridged edition of the Book of Household Management , considers Isabella 's work a " founding text " and " a force in shaping " the middle @-@ class identity of the Victorian era . Within that identity , the historian Sarah Richardson sees that one of Beeton 's achievements was the integration of different threads of domestic science into one volume , which " <unk> [ ed ] the middle @-@ class female housekeeper 's role ... placing it in a broader and more public context " . Nown quotes an unnamed academic who thought that " Mrs <unk> has preserved the family as a social unit , and made social reforms a possibility " , while Nicola Humble , in her history of British food , sees The Book of Household Management as " an engine for social change " which led to a " new cult of domesticity that was to play such a major role in mid @-@ Victorian life " . Nown considers Isabella 
