A General History of England 1688-1832 by W.A. Barker, G.R.St. Aubyn and R.L. Ollard
London: A&C Black Ltd, 1952
I loved this book not only because it was a highly readable history of an era of English history that is not well known to me, but also because the style in which it was written (by two Eton Schoolmasters and a Lecturer at the Royal Naval College) is so redolent of an England that is now lost.
England in the period covered by this book changed completely, from an absolute monarchy, to the beginnings of truly representative democratic government; from an agrarian society to an industrial one, and from a small player in world affairs to a huge player in Europe and throughout the World. This book shows that the development of England into the power that in 1832 was about to create the biggest empire the world had ever seen came about not through design, but through a series of what turned out to be happy accidents.
This book begins with the "Glorious Revolution" in 1688, when James II, through his arrogance and stupidity lost the throne, and the Parliament invited William of Orange to be King. The importance of this step in the future development of the United Kingdom is paramount, as it cemented the right of Parliament to regulate how the monarchy can work, although the significance perhaps was not realized at the time.
The Whig faction (it would not be accurate to think of the Whigs and Tories as "parties" in the modern sense), who supported the "revolution", benefited by the ascension of William III, and presided over the fallout of the revolution - which was war. They defeated the Irish, and managed to keep France out of Spain and Holland, for English foreign policy revolved at this time around France, and limiting her power.
The Eighteenth century in England was one of experiment in many areas - agriculture, industry, and other sciences. While these advances were taking place, England was also a vigorous player in the slave trade, dispossession of native tribes in America, and in repressing the poor in the home countries. In the political sphere, the forces of progress had a rocky time of it, given the corrupt nature of the parliamentary system. Seats had not changed for hundreds of years, which meant that there were some seats with but a few electors ("rotten boroughs") which were easily bought off, but also some large cities that had grown up around industry and trade that had no representation in the House. Add to this electorates that were under the sway of the local Lord, and membership of the House of Commons was highly regulated. The House of Lords even more so, as the creation of members of this house was entirely up to the King, and so could be relied on to follow the wishes of the monarch even if the Commons was being feisty.
As with most politics, progress only came through crises: in the case of the Eighteenth Century, these were usually wars. The crisis that hit home hardest was the War for American Independence, which was completely avoidable. The ham-fisted control of the colonies by London, and the punitive taxes and restrictions on trade that came about as the result of England's wars with France and Spain, led to a revolt that succeeded, again through the incompetence of the military leaders of the time. The loss of America led the government to review how it taxed and controlled the colonies, and ensured that such a revolt never happened again.
The Empire increased in other ways, and in other areas. The rise and rise of the East India Company meant that by the Eighteenth Century it was a nation within a nation, with enormous sway in England, and hegemony over an ever-increasing area of the Subcontinent. That a private company could do such a thing was not tenable for an extended length of time, and over the course of the Eighteenth Century the Government exerted more and more control over the Company, until by the end of the century India was effectively under British government control.
While the American Revolution was a heavy blow to England, it was the French Revolution that created modern England. The war that followed the revolution ensured that England became a major power, and the post-war depression, with unemployment and destitution facing many, created social upheaval that needed to be addressed to stop an English revolution along French lines. Parliament faced this crisis, and through concessions that led up to the Reform Act in 1832 fended off a major social upheaval, at the "cost" of creating the beginnings of the representative democracy and the welfare society that we recognise today.
This is a period of English history that is usually glossed over these days - we move pretty much from Elizabeth to Victoria, and don't seem to look deeply at the centuries in-between. While this book is no doubt been superseded as current history, it's a great "old-fashioned" (i.e. great men, dates, kings and wars) introduction into an era that set the stage for modern England to be born.
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