Synopses & Reviews
The nineteenth century was a time of massive growth for Britain. In 1800 it was overwhelmingly rural, agrarian, multilingual, and almost half-Celtic. A century later it was largely urban and English. The effects of the Industrial Revolution caused cities to swell enormously. London, for example, grew from about 1 million people to over 6 million. Abroad, the British Empire was reaching its apex, while at home the world came to marvel at the Great Exhibition of 1851 with its crowning achievement--the Crystal Palace. Historians Christopher Harvie and Colin Matthew present a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the social, economic, and political events that marked the era on which many believed the sun would never set.
About the Author
Christopher Harvie is Professor of British and Irish Studies at Tübingen in Germany.
Colin Matthew is editor of the
Gladstone Diaries and author of an award-winning life of the Victorian statesman.
Table of Contents
1. Reflections on the revolutions
2. Industrial development
3. Reform and religion
4. The wars abroad
5. Roads to freedom
6. Coping with reform
7. Unless the Lord build the city
8. The ringing grooves of change
9. Politics and diplomacy: Palmerstons years
10. Incorporation
11. Free trade: an industrial economy rampant
12. A shifting population: town and country
13. The masses and the classes: the urban worker
14. Clerks and commerce: the lower middle class
15. The propertied classes
16. Pomp and circumstance
17. A great change in manners
18. Villa Tories: the Conservative resurgence
19. Ireland, Scotland, Wales: Home Rule frustrated
20. Reluctant imperialists?
21. The fin-de-siècle reaction: new views of the State
22. Old Liberalism, New Liberalism, Labourism, and tariff reform
23. Edwardian years: a crisis of the State contained
24. Your English summers done
Further reading
Chronology
Prime ministers 1789-1914
Index