Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Strange Death of Liberal England (1935)by George Dangerfield
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is an exciting read, written with energy and humor, about a crazy time in UK politics, when the ruling Liberal Party muddled through four significant crises of which three had significant constitutional implications -- women's suffrage, the Irish push for Home Rule with the resulting army mutiny and stripping of power from the House of Lords (so I'm counting it as two crises), and the wave of strikes that swept the country. The personalities are closely and affectionately observed and the story is satisfyingly told, but what's missing from the book is a theory of why it was this set of crises that led to the death of the Liberal Party. The author doesn't rate any Labour party leaders particularly highly, and yet by the time the dust had settled after the war Labour had solidly taken over from the Liberals as the party that the Conservatives traded turns in power with. Why did that happen (instead of the UK turning into Canada with a large centrist party often squeezing out both the left and the right)? The book doesn't really address it, and you reach the end having greatly enjoyed the ride and educated about a lot of interesting issues of the time, but none the wiser on what purports to be its central question. ( ) This is an extremely well-written account of the issues which were bedevilling English society in the run-up to the Great War. It is certainly an answer to the sentimental views of the war interrupting a golden afternoon of the late Edwardian / early Georgian period: Dangerfield highlights the ways in which the issues we tend to think of as part of the post-war changes -- Ireland, women's votes, the growing eclipse of the Liberals by Labour, trade unionism and radicalism -- were all present as a heady mixture leading into the war (and were suddenly suspended, in a burst of patriotism, on the outburst of war). Well worth reading, and aimed at the general public of its time rather than the specialist (it does, now, require that one have a bit of general background to put it in context). If it has a weakness, it is that it is too short.
This book focuses on the chaos that overtook England on the eve of the First World War. Dangerfield weaves together the three wild strands of the Irish Rebellion (the rebellion in Ulster), the Suffragette Movement and the Labour Movement to produce a vital picture of the state of mind and the most pressing social problems in England at the time. The country was preparing even then for its entrance into the twentieth century and total war.Dangerfield argues that between the death of Edward VII and the First World War there was a considerable hiatus in English history. He states that 1910 was a landmark year in English history. In 1910 the English spirit flared up, so that by the end of 1913 Liberal England was reduced to ashes. From these ashes, a new England emerged in which the true prewar Liberalism was supported by free trade, a majority in Parliament, the Ten Commandments, but the illusion of progress vanished. That extravagant behavior of the postwar decade, Dangerfield notes, had begun before the war. The war hastened everything - in politics, in economics, in behavior - but it started nothing.George Dangerfield's wonderfully written 1935 book has been extraordinarily influential. Scarcely any important analyst of modern Britain has failed to cite it and to make use of the understanding Dangerfield provides. This edition is timely, since the year 2010 has seen a definitive resurrection of Liberal power. Subsequent to the General Election of July 2010 the government of the United Kingdom has been in the hands of a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition. The Deputy Prime Minister is the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party - the direct successor of the old Liberal Party examined by Dangerfield. Five Liberal Democrat members of Parliament were appointed to the Cabinet and there are Liberal Democrat ministers in all governmental departments. After decades of absence from government power, Liberalism seems to be back with a vengeance. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)941.083History and Geography Europe British Isles Historical periods of British Isles 1837- Period of Victoria and House of Windsor 1910-1936 George VLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |