Twentieth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

193 Pages·2005·2.46 MB·English

by  Kenneth O. Morgan

Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction
Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating
and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have
been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics
in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next
few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short
Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to
conceptual art and cosmology.
Very Short Introductions available now:
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy
Julia Annas Simon Critchley
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM
ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins
Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch
Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford
THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans
Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe
Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver
BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn
CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder
CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION
Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore
CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
John Henderson William Doyle
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr
THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake
Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh
GLOBALIZATION paul E. P. Sanders
Manfred Steger Philosophy Edward Craig
HEGEL Peter Singer PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood Samir Okasha
HINDUISM Kim Knott PLATO Julia Annas
HISTORY John H. Arnold POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM
HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM
Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler
Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey
ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
JUDAISM Norman Solomon PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne
KANT Roger Scruton Psychology Gillian Butler and
KIERKEGAARD Freda McManus
Patrick Gardiner QUANTUM THEORY
THE KORAN Michael Cook John Polkinghorne
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROMAN BRITAIN
LITERARY THEORY Peter Salway
Jonathan Culler ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LOCKE John Dunn RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSIAN LITERATURE
MACHIAVELLI Catriona Kelly
Quentin Skinner THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MARX Peter Singer S. A. Smith
MATHEMATICS SCHIZOPHRENIA
Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER
John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway
Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY
MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN
H. C. G. Matthew John Morrill
NORTHERN IRELAND TERRORISM Charles Townshend
Marc Mulholland THEOLOGY David F. Ford
Available soon:
THE TUDORS John Guy FUNDAMENTALISM
TWENTIETH-CENTURY Malise Ruthven
BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Habermas Gordon Finlayson
Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling HIEROGLYPHS
WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Penelope Wilson
AFRICAN HISTORY HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson
John Parker and Richard Rathbone HUMAN EVOLUTION
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Bernard Wood
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
BUDDHIST ETHICS Paul Wilkinson
Damien Keown JAZZ Brian Morton
CHAOS Leonard Smith MANDELA Tom Lodge
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead MEDICAL ETHICS
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Tony Hope
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE THE MIND Martin Davies
Robert Tavernor Myth Robert Segal
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
CONTEMPORARY ART PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
Julian Stallabrass PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
THE CRUSADES Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
Christopher Tyerman PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
Derrida Simon Glendinning THE RAJ Denis Judd
DESIGN John Heskett THE RENAISSANCE
Dinosaurs David Norman Jerry Brotton
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson RENAISSANCE ART
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Geraldine Johnson
THE END OF THE WORLD SARTRE Christina Howells
Bill McGuire THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Helen Graham
THE FIRST WORLD WAR TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
FREE WILL Thomas Pink Martin Conway
For more information visit our web site
www.oup.co.uk/vsi
Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew
Nineteenth-
Century
Britain
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
AucklandBangkokBuenos AiresCape TownChennai
Dar es SalaamDelhiHong KongIstanbulKarachiKolkata
Kuala LumpurMadrid MelbourneMexico City MumbaiNairobi
São PauloShanghaiTaipeiTokyoToronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
Text © Christopher Harvie and the estate of H. C. G. Matthew 2000
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
Text first published in The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain 1984
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 0–19–285398–8
791086
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
In memoriam Colin Matthew, 1941–1999
‘An honest man’s the noblest work of God’
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations xi
List of Maps xiii
1
Reflections on the Revolutions 1
2
Industrial Development 9
3
Reform and Religion 18
4
The Wars Abroad 22
5
Roads to Freedom 30
6
Coping with Reform 35
7
‘Unless the Lord Build the City ...’ 41
8
‘The Ringing Grooves of Change’ 48
9
Politics and Diplomacy: Palmerston’s Years 54
10
Incorporation 59
11
Free Trade: An Industrial Economy Rampant 64
12
A Shifting Population: Town and Country 77
13
The Masses and the Classes: The Urban Worker 86
14
Clerks and Commerce: The Lower Middle Class 94
15
The Propertied Classes 97