Britain since 1688: A Nation in the World

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of
Contents
Preface
Author biographies
Acknowledgments
1.
The making of a modern state
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	The British political world in the late seventeenth century
	Background to the Glorious Revolution
	The revolution happens
	The Glorious Revolution and empire
	War and the fiscal–military state
	The Hanoverian Succession
	The Act of Union of 1707
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
2.
The Whig world
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	A changing society?
	The problem of poverty
	The public sphere and the global world
	A new dynasty, and a new dynamic
	The rise of Robert Walpole
	Walpole’s decline, fall, and legacy
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
3.
The British Empire in the eighteenth century
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	Empire of liberty?
	India and the Seven Years’ War
	A British civil war? The American Revolution
	Imperial resurgence: The second British Empire in India
	Imperial expansion in the Pacific
	The abolition of slavery
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
4.
A United Kingdom? 1760–1820
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	Wilkes and liberty
	The forging of British unity
	Ireland
	Religion
	Changes in agriculture and transportation
	Politics: Pitt versus Fox
	The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
	The War of 1812
	Reform and repression
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
5.
The early Victorian era: global power and its challenges
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	The Industrial Revolution
	Reform
	Scotland and Wales under the union
	Ireland under the Union: repeal and famine
	Self-rule in the settlement colonies
	Imperial expansion
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
6.
The mid-Victorians and their world
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	A smaller world
	Urbanization and the dominance of laissez-faire
	Education and religion
	Women and separate spheres
	Foreign policy
	Britain and the American Civil War
	Challenges to British imperial authority
	The Great Rivalry: Disraeli and Gladstone
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
7.
Britain and Empire, 1870–1910
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	The Diamond Jubilee and the monarchy
	Imperial conquest and expansion
	Ruling an empire
	The Empire at home
	Challenges to Empire
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
8.
Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain: social and political change
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	Disuniting the kingdom: the Home Rule debate
	Conservative politics in the late nineteenth century
	Social change
	Conservative dominance and tariff reform after 1900
	Liberal landslide, the origins of the Labour Party, and constitutional crisis
	An Edwardian crisis?
	National efficiency
	The Anglo-German rivalry
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
9.
The First World War
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	Britain’s entry into the war
	Enthusiasm for war?
	The military course of the war
	Government, politics, and the war effort
	The home front
	The Empire in the Great War
	The Easter Rising
	The costs and consequences of the war
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
10.
The interwar years
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	The new postwar order
	The postwar “Crisis of Empire”
	Party politics in the 1920s and 1930s
	A struggling economy
	Wales, Scotland, and Ireland
	Social and cultural change
	Foreign policy and appeasement
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
11.
The Second World War
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	1940–1: Britain alone
	The Battle of Britain and the Blitz
	Turning the tide
	The home front
	Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the Second World War
	The Empire at war
	Victory
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
12. “Let us face the future”: the postwar era
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	The welfare state and its limits
	Managing and reconstructing the economy
	Cultural change
	The troubles in Northern Ireland
	Britain in the 1970s
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
13.
The postwar Empire
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	Independence and partition in South Asia
	The Commonwealth
	The \"Dirty Wars of Empire”
	The Suez crisis and the “wind of change”
	Empire Windrush and “New Commonwealth” immigration
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
14.
The 1980s: Thatcherism and its critics
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	A polarizing figure
	Divided opposition
	Two victories, and a bomb
	New wealth and popular culture
	Downfall
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
15.
New Labour and beyond
	Topics covered
	Introduction
	The Conservatives after Thatcher
	Tony Blair and the rise of new Labour
	New Labour’s achievements and the role of “spin”
	The Good Friday Agreement
	Blair and the Iraq War
	The 7/7 bombings and the debate over multiculturalism
	The end of New Labour and the return of the Conservatives
	British society today
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
Glossary
Index