British Politics in the Age of Anne


Book Description

British Politics in the Age of Anne is a book that anyone with an interest in the period will wish to possess: completely authoritative, yet as attractive to the student and the general reader as to the specialist. The author has both revised the text and written a substantial new introduction to this edition. Geoffrey Holmes reveals how little the structure and contents of politics under Queen Anne had in common with the connexion-ridden scene of the mid-eighteenth century, as portrayed by Namier. He depicts a period of fierce and genuine party conflict, in which society at many levels was divided by great issues of principle and policy. Through frequent and hotly-contested elections and long parliamentary campaigns both Whigs and Tories enjoyed triumphs and suffered disasters. And while struggling against one another, each had to contend with internal factions and pressure-groups, the divisive thrust of personal ambitions and the hostility of the queen to single party rule. British Politics in the Age of Anne is more than a major work of analysis and a historiographical landmark. By liberal use of quotation, eye for detail, sense of atmosphere and vivid character sketches of both leading and lesser personae, Professor Holmes recreates the unique political life of the high Augustan age.




Britain in the First Age of Party, 1687-1750


Book Description

The 70 years of late Stuart and early Hanoverian Britain following 1680 were a crucial period in British politics and society, seeing the growth both of political parties and of stability. This collection of original essays provides a coherent account of Britain in the 'First Age of Party'.




The Early Parties and Politics in Britain, 1688-1832


Book Description

There has always been a tendency to view British politics before the 1832 reform act as though the parties in parliament were clumsy, embryo versions of the later Conservatives and Liberals - their every act interpreted as being either as further striving towards modernity or a relapse into more primitive patterns of behaviour. This can be helpful to students in disentangling some very complex factional material, but for much of the time the 19th and 20th century party labels simply do not make any sense at all in this earlier period. A good, clear account of what exactly was meant by 'party' and how the different parliamentary groupings evolved from the Restoration to the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars has long been needed, and Brian Hill, who has studied this issue for many years, has at last provided such an account.




Redcoat


Book Description

Based on the letters and diaries of the British soldiers who served as the backbone of the army from 1760 to 1860, this illuminating book is rich in the history of a fascinating era. of illustrations.




The Politics of Opera in Handel's Britain


Book Description

Thomas McGeary's book explores the relationship between Italian opera and British partisan politics in the era of George Frideric Handel.




Longman Handbook to Modern British History 1714 - 2001


Book Description

This compact and accessible reference work provides all the essential facts and figures about major aspects of modern British history from the death of Queen Anne to the end of the 1990s. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History has been extended to include a fully-revised bibliography (reflecting the wealth of newly published material in recent years), the new statistics on social and economic history and an expanded glossary of terms. The political chronologies have been revised to include the electoral defeat of John Major and the record of New Labour in office. Designed for the student and general reader, this highly-successful handbook provides a wealth of varied data within the confines of a single volume.




British Politics, Society and Empire, 1852-1945


Book Description

This book draws together essays on modern British history, empire, liberalism and conservatism in honour of Trevor O. Lloyd, Emeritus Professor of Modern British history at the University of Toronto for some thirty years beginning in the 1960s. With Lloyd best known for his two histories of the Empire and of domestic Britain, published in the Short Oxford History of the Modern World series, as well as his pioneering psephological study of the 1880 General Election, the essays include analyses of Anglo-Irish relations, Florence Nightingale, Canada, muckrackers, the Primrose League and prisoners of war during World War II.




A History of British Elections since 1689


Book Description

A History of British Elections since 1689 represents a unique single-volume authoritative reference guide to British elections and electoral systems from the Glorious Revolution to the present day. The main focus is on general elections and associated by-elections, but Chris Cook and John Stevenson also cover national referenda, European parliament elections, municipal elections, and elections to the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies and the Scottish parliament. The outcome and political significance of all these elections are looked at in detail, but the authors also discuss broader themes and debates in British electoral history, for example: the evolution of the electoral system, parliamentary reform, women's suffrage, constituency size and numbers, elimination of corrupt practices, and other important topics. The book also follows the fortunes not only of the major political parties but of fringe movements of the extreme right and left. Combining data, summary and analysis with thematic overviews and chronological outlines, this major new reference provides a definitive guide to the long and varied history of British elections and is essential reading for students of British political history.




Armies and Political Change in Britain, 1660-1750


Book Description

Armies and Political Change in Britain, 1660 -1750 argues that armies had a profound impact on the major political events of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Britain. Beginning with the controversial creation of a permanent army to protect the restored Stuart monarchy, this original and important study examines how armies defended or destroyed regimes during the Exclusion Crisis, Monmouth's Rebellion, the Revolution of 1688-1689, and the Jacobite rebellions and plots of the post-1714 period, including the '15 and '45. Hannah Smith explores the political ideas of 'common soldiers' and army officers and analyses their political engagements in a divisive, partisan world. The threat or hope of military intervention into politics preoccupied the era. Would a monarch employ the army to circumvent parliament and annihilate Protestantism? Might the army determine the succession to the throne? Could an ambitious general use armed force to achieve supreme political power? These questions troubled successive generations of men and women as the British army developed into a lasting and costly component of the state, and emerged as a highly successful fighting force during the War of the Spanish Succession. Armies and Political Change in Britain, 1660 - 1750 deploys an innovative periodization to explore significant continuities and developments across the reigns of seven monarchs spanning almost a century. Using a vivid and extensive array of archival, literary, and artistic material, the volume presents a striking new perspective on the political and military history of Britain.




The Politics of Wine in Britain


Book Description

A unique look at the meaning of the taste for wine in Britain, from the establishment of a Commonwealth in 1649 to the Commercial Treaty between Britain and France in 1860 - this book provides an extraordinary window into the politics and culture of England and Scotland just as they were becoming the powerful British state.