Synopses & Reviews
An extensively revised edition of a classic of modern historiography.
Review
"It will force a revision of most of our accepted ideas on the eighteenth century." John Kenyon"...as bold, as brave, as exciting a book as I have read on the eighteenth century this decade. It breaks the mode of Hanoverian politics." John Morrill
Synopsis
This classic work of recent historiography broke the hold of the old guard on this key period of English history. It has now been extensively rewritten, and in its updated form reinforces its arguments with new evidence and addresses some of the historical preoccupations of the past fifteen years.
Table of Contents
Introduction: the nature of the Old Order; 1. From restoration to reconciliation, 1660 1760; 2. The social and ideological premises of the old order; 3. National identity: the matrix of Church and State; 4. Before radicalism: the religious origins of disaffection, 1688 1800; 5. The old order on the eve of its demise: slow erosion; 6. The end of the Protestant constitution, 1800 1832: sudden collapse.