The Strange Death of Liberal England

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 show more bit of general background to put it in context). If it has a weakness, it is that it is too short. show less

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 show more 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. show less

The book I sometimes say I would cut off one pinkie to have written. I love George Dangerfield and the way he writes history.

1099 The Strange Death of Liberal England, by George Dangerfield (read 9 Dec 1970) Because I was so impressed by Dangerfield's The Era of Good Feelings, I decided to read this. It is an account of England from 1910 to Aug 4, 1914--and is an odd book. Nothing like The Era of Good Feelings. One'd never know the two books were written by the same person. Much of this book deals with the Irish question. The account of the struggle over the House of Lords is, of course, fascinating, but it only takes up a portion of the early part of the book. Then a lot of time is given to the Parkhursts and Votes for Women, and that is very interesting. Their tactics were somewhat like today's [1970] crazies. The story of the trade union movement is not as show more interesting. The book ends with an account of Rupert Brooke: "He was buried on St. George's Day. by moonlight: and above his head....Standing beside that moonlit grave, one looks back. All the violence of the pre-war world has vanished, and in its place there glows, year into backward year, the diminishing vistas of that other England, the England where the Grantchester church clock stood at ten to three, where there was Beauty and Certainty and Quiet, and where nothing was real. Today we know it for what it was; but there are moments ...when we could almost find it in our hearts to envy those who saw it, and who never lived to see the new world." show less

What a gem this book is. Unfortunately, one needs an adequate grounding in British history, social history, and literature to fully 'get' it, but still, an excellent read.

How did the dominate Liberal Party die in England? How did Edwardian England die?
This book answers these questions and more.