1st Edition
The Shaping of Modern Britain Identity, Industry and Empire 1780 - 1914
In this wide-ranging history of modern Britain, Eric Evans surveys every aspect of the period in which Britain was transformed into the world's first industrial power. By the end of the nineteenth century, Britain was still ruled by wealthy landowners, but the world over which they presided had been utterly transformed. It was an era of revolutionary change unparalleled in Britain - yet that change was achieved without political revolution.
Ranging across the developing empire, and dealing with such central institutions as the church, education, health, finance and rural and urban life, The Shaping of Modern Britain provides an unparallelled account of Britain's rise to superpower status. Particular attention is given to the Great Reform Act of 1832, and the implications of the 1867 Reform Act are assessed. The book discusses:
- the growing role of the central state in domestic policy making
- the emergence of the Labour party
- the Great Depression
- the acquisition of a vast territorial empire
Comprehensive, informed and engagingly written, The Shaping of Modern Britain will be an invaluable introduction for students of this key period of British history.
IDENTITY, INDUSTRY AND EMPIRE, 1780-1914
Section 1: Early Industrial Britain, c1780-1850
Introduction
Chapter 1: A ‘Greater Britain’ in 1780?
Chapter 2: The Demographic Revolution in Britain and Ireland
Chapter 3: Aristocracy rampant?
Chapter 4: The role and impact of the middle classes in British society
Chapter 5: Industrial Revolution or Industrial Evolution?
Chapter 6: Urban Growth and Regional Diversity
Chapter 7: Agriculture in the Early Industrial Age
Chapter 8: Industrialism and Conflict
Section 2: Britainat war and peace, 1780-1815
Introduction
Chapter 9: Government in crisis: the impact of the war for America
Chapter 10: A ‘National Revival’ under the Younger Pitt, 1783-93
Chapter 11: Britain in the 1790s: the impact of the French Revolution
Chapter 12: The Younger Pitt & the French Revolutionary Wars, 1793-1801
Chapter 13: The Napoleonic Wars, 1803-15
Chapter 14: John Bull’s other Island: Ireland and Union, 1780-1815
Chapter 15: Paying for War: government, politics and religion in early nineteenth-century Britain
Section 3:A new political era, 1815-46
Introduction
Chapter 16: The Age of Lord Liverpool I: Radicalism, Reform and Repression, 1815-22
Chapter 17: The Age of Lord Liverpool II: Liberal Toryism, 1822-27?
Chapter 18: Congresses and Conflicts: Britain in Europe, 1815-30
Chapter 19: Matters Imperial, c1790-c1850
Chapter 20: The crisis of Toryism and the road to Reform, 1827-32
Chapter 21: The reality of Reform: the new order and its critics
Chapter 22: The Age of Peel? Policies and Parties, 1832-46
Section 4:A Mature Industrial Society, c1850-1914
Introduction
Chapter 23: A ‘Second Industrial Revolution’?: British economic performance,
1850-80
Chapter 24: Social structure and social change in a maturing economy
Chapter 25: Identities, Aspirations and Gender
Chapter 26: Free Trade, Laissez-faire and the changing role the state, c1830-80
Chapter 27: Supremacy under threat? Economy and Society, 1880-1914
Chapter 28: The State, Charity and the Poor, c1830-c1900
Chapter 29: Education, Leisure and Society
Section 5:Party, Policy and Diplomacy: 1846-80
Introduction
Chapter 30: Party Politics Confounded, 1846-59
Chapter 31: Parliamentary Reform c1850-1880: Intention and Impact
Chapter 32: Gladstone and the Liberal Party, 1860-80
Chapter 33: Disraeli and the Conservative Party, 1860-80
Chapter 34: Diplomacy and War: the Pax Britannica challenged, c1840-65
Chapter 35: Diplomacy and the Eastern Question, c1865-80
Section 6: Empire, Democracy and the Road to War, 1880-1914.
Introduction
Chapter 36: ‘This vast Empire on which the Sun never sets’: imperial expansion and cultural
icon
Chapter 37: Conservatism in the era of Salisbury
Chapter 38: The Liberal party, 1880-1914: sundered and saved?
Chapter 39: Votes for Women
Chapter 40: The impact of Ireland on British Politics, 1880-1914
Chapter 41: Labour, welfare and social conflict, 1900-14
Chapter 42: A greater need for security: Diplomacy and alliance systems, 1880-1902
Chapter 43: An accidental catastrophe? The origins of the First World War
Chapter 44: Epilogue
Biography
Eric J. Evans is Professor Emeritus of History at Lancaster University and author of a number of seminal books on the political and social history of eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain, including The Forging of the Modern State: Early Industrial Britain, 1783-1870 (third edition 2001) and Britain Before the Reform Act (second edition 2008).
