IN THE PREFACE TO HER twenty-five volume series of novellas, Illustrations of Political Economy (1832–33), Harriet Martineau advertises her attempt to popularize the emergent science of political economy. However, at the same time that she justifies her plan to illustrate various principles of political economy through her use of narrative form, Martineau goes further, arguing for the global scope and significance of this contested and often misunderstood new science. Toward the close of her preface, she writes: