Britain since 1707 is the first single-volume book to cover the complex and multi-layered history of Great Britain from its inception until 2007.
Bringing together political, economic, social and cultural history, the book offers a reliable and balanced account of the nation over a 300 year period. It looks at major developments such as the Enlightenment, the growth of democracy and gender change while also tracing the distinctive experience of different, the books additional features include: social and ethnic groups through the decades. Fully integrating Scotland, Wales and the Irish experience, the books comprehensive sweep includes coverage of the industrial revolution, the British Empire, the two world wars and todays multicultural society.
Ideally structured to support courses and classes on British history
· Focus On sections with original documents and sources
· Timelines and tables to aid understanding
· Historical sources and further reading suggestions at the end of each chapter
· Illuminating contemporary illustrations
From Queen Anne to Gordon Brown, this wide-ranging and accessible book provides a complete and up-to-date history of Britain. Offering a coherent account of the evolution of the nation and its people, it will be essential reading for all students of British history.
Callum G. Brown is professor of religious and cultural history at the University of Dundee. He is the author of eight books including Religion and Society in Twentieth-Century Britain (2006),Postmodernism for Historians (2004) and The Death of Christian Britain (2001).
W. Hamish Fraser was, until his retirement, professor of modern history at the University of Strathclyde. His publications include A History of British Trade Unionism 1700-1998 (1999) and The Coming of the Mass Market (1981), and he has also edited volumes on the histories of Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Preface Part 1: Introduction
Ch 1 Approaches to Britains history
Images of Britain
Language of the past
The disputed British past
Political history: putting the great in Britain
Labour and social history
Economic history
Cultural history
Section 2: An Uncertain Stability, 1707-1779
Ch 2. The political system
The making of Great Britain
Politics and Power
Whigs and Tories
Queen Anne's government
The Walpole era
Pelham to Pitt
George II and Lord Bute
Lord North
Ch 3. Power and society in rural Britain
Population and economy
Church and religion
Social relations
Ch 4. Urban Life
Town and city
Luxury and consumption
Social rank and culture
Ch 5. The Enlightenment and Gender
The nature of the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment and gender
Ch 6. The British abroad
Early imperial expansion
Canada
India
The Pacific
American Rebellion
Ireland
Part3. The Industrialising Nation 1780-1829
Ch 7. The Industrial Revolution
Economic change
Causes of change
Patterns of work
Agriculture
Ch 8. The social revolution
- The birth of class
- Gender relations
- The standard of living debate
- Health and housing
Ch 9. Running the state
- From North to Pitt
- Pitt the Younger
- War with France
- Ireland and Union
- Addington to Liverpool
- The Liverpool Ministry
- Catholic Emancipation
Ch 10. Britain at war
- Out of isolation
- The first coalition
- The second coalition
- The third coalition
- Congress of Europe
Ch. 11. Challenges to the political system
- Pressures for reform
- The impact of the French Revolution
- Ireland
- Radicalism revives
Part 4. The Dominant Nation 1830-1879
Ch. 12. The making of an urban society
- Urban conditions
- Tackling urban problems
- Poverty, policing and children
Ch 13. The Victorian economy
- The steam age
- Economic organisation
- Blight and depression in Ireland and Scotland
- Agricultural improvement and society
Ch 14. Class, gender and religion
- Class
- Gender
- Religion
Ch 15. Responses to industrial change
- Resistance to change
- The British experience
- Owenite unionism
- New attitudes
Ch 16. Politics in transition
- Whig reform
- Peels government
- Politics without cohesion
- Palmerstons government
- Liberals, Tories and Reform
- Gladstones first ministry
- Disraelian Conservatism
Ch 17. The growth of the state
- How the state grew
- The Poor Law
- Public health
- Factory and mines reform
- Education
Ch 18. Democratic pressures
- Parliamentary reform
- The factory movement
- Chartism
- The Anti-Corn Law League
- Administrative Reform
- The Second Reform Act
Part 5: The Imperial Heyday 1880 - 1918
Ch 19. Britain and its Empire
- Approaching empire and imperialism
- Indian revolt, African scramble
- Explanations of empire
- Testing the explanations
- Political considerations
- South African war
Ch 20. The late-Victorian and war economy
- Economic contradictions
- Did the late Victorian economy fail?
- Rural society and economy
- The war economy 1914-1919
Ch 21. Intellectual ferment
- Modernism
- Marxism
- Freudianism
- Feminism
Ch 22. People, society and culture
- Social class
- Trade unions and the labour movement
- Womens lives
- Mens lives
- Ethnicity
Ch 23. Political Change 1880-1901
- Irish unrest
- Parliamentary reform
- Salisburys first ministry
- The Liberal split
- Conservatism triumphant
Ch 24. Edwardian politics 1901-1914
- Liberals divided
- Emergence of Labour
- Liberals united
- Asquiths governments
- Liberalism in 1914
Ch 25. The British road to war
- Splendid isolation
- French relations
- German and Russian relations
- New tensions 1912-1914
- Why war?
Ch 26. The First World War
- The coming of conflict
- Lloyd Georges coalition
- Ireland
- War and Empire
- The xenophobia of war
- Labour and the war
Part 6: War and the End of Empire 1919-1963
Ch 27. The economy in peace and war
- Boom and bust
- Recovery and war 1933-45
- Did the inter-war economy succeed?
- From austerity to prosperity 1946-63
- Workers and trade unions
Ch 28. Political change 1919-1939
- Adjusting to the peace
- Labour government 1924
- Conservative government 1924-1929
- Labour government 1929-1931
- National governments
- Baldwin and Chamberlain
Ch 29. The Second World War
- The search for peace
- Britains war
- A political consensus?
- General election 1945
Ch 30. People, society and culture
- Social class
- Men, women and youth
- Ethnicity
Ch 31. From Attlee to Macmillan 1945-1963
- Labour in power
- Britain in the world
- Winston Churchill as peace Prime Minister
- Edens government
- The Macmillan years 1957-1963
Ch 32. The Welfare State
- Origins
- Beveridge and after
- The end of the welfare state?
Ch 33. The end of empire
- The concept of commonwealth
- South Asia
- Africa
- The Mediterranean and the West Indies
- Why the end?
Part 7: The Reshaping of Britain 1964-2007
Ch 34. Economic modernisation
- The free-market economy
- Economic decline or modernisation?
- The European Union 1974-2007
- Work, education and trade unions
- Globalisation
Ch 35. Black Britain: ethnic minorities and multi-culturalism
- The background to 1963
- Patterns of migration, work and settlement
- Multi-culturalism and resistance to it
- Discrimination and rights
- Religious identities
Ch 36. Media, youth and society
- The media explosion
- Youth culture
- Whatever happened to class?
Ch 37. The gender revolution
- Womens liberation
- The masculinity crisis
- The sexual revolution
Ch 38. Politics from Wilson to Brown
- Labour again 1964-1970
- Heaths government 1970-1974
- Labour government 1974-1979
- nbsp; John Major 1990-1997
- The Troubles in Northern Ireland 1969-1998
- Blair and Brown from 1997
Ch 39. Fragmentation and Europeanisation of Britain
- Wales and Scotland
- The new Europe 1956-1963
- Labour and Europe 1964-1979
- Towards the Europe Union 1979-2007