"A brilliant, multifaceted chronicle of economic and social change." --The New York Times

"No praise can be too high." --The New York Review of Books

At the outset of the 1870s, the British aristocracy could rightly consider themselves the most fortunate people on earth: they held the lion's share of land, wealth, and power in the world's greatest empire. By the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige, and political significance.

Deftly orchestrating an enormous array of documents and letters, facts, and statistics, David Cannadine shows how this shift came about--and how it was reinforced in the aftermath of the Second World War. Astonishingly learned, lucidly written, and sparkling with wit, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy is a landmark study that dramatically changes our understanding of British social history.

"Cannadine has produced a great book, one that is comprehensive in its scope, and of critical importance."                                                                    --London Review of Books

Intended to celebrate the 70th birthday of the distinguished historian, Lawrence Stone, these essays owe much to his influence. There are also four appreciations by friends and colleagues from Oxford and Princeton and a little-known autobiographical piece by Lawrence Stone himself.

For many people throughout the English-speaking world and beyond, Winston Churchill was the greatest statesman of the twentieth century: the saviour of his country and a staunch defender of democracy in the face of totalitarianism. By writing history, as well as by making it, Churchill influenced our whole view of the twentieth century and his role in it. But how does he look now, in a new century, with a different agenda and when few can remember him? This book confronts and addresses this question; partly by including the reminiscences and recollections of four people who still vividly remember Churchill (Tony Benn, Lord Carrington, Lord Deedes and Lady Soames); but primarily by bringing together a group of historians (David Cannadine, Roland Quinault, Paul Addison, Chris Wrigley, Stuart Ball, David Reynolds, John Charmley, David Carlton, John W. Young and Peter Hennessy), who explore the complexities and ambiguities of this extraordinary man.

For too long, too many historians have been too much concerned with impersonal forces, underlying structures and long-term developments. Now, "people" are back. In a postmodern age it is easier to appreciate the decisive role played by individuals, as they ride their luck and seize their opportunity to bend the world to their will. As these essays by twelve eminent historians demonstrate, biography is too important to be left to the amateurs. Among the rich variety of strong characters analyzed here are an Austrian emperor, a German kaiser, a Victorian prime minister, an Italian dictator, and an American president.

For too long, too many historians have been too much concerned with impersonal forces, underlying structures and long-term developments. Now, 'people' are back. In a post-modern age it is easier to appreciate the decisive role played by individuals, as they ride their luck and seize their opportunity to bend the world to their will. As these essays by twelve eminent historians demonstrate, biography is too important to be left to the amateurs. Among the rich variety of strong characters analysed here are an Austrian emperor, a German kaiser, a Victorian prime minister, an Italian dictator, and an American president. Dedicated to a master-biographer, Derek Beales, the range and quality of this collection will stimulate, inform and entertain everyone interested in the history of the modern world.

Heads of state today mark their rites of passage with splendid ceremonial, from Reagan's inaugural to Andropov's funeral. Such spectacles continue to be a prominent part of modern political systems, of varied ideological hue, but their precise meaning and importance often remain unclear. These specially commissioned essays address the central problem in the understanding of royal rituals, the relation between power and ceremonial. These contributions, from historians and anthropologists, examine a wide range of societies.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the growth of interest in the urban past was one of the most prominent developments in historical studies in the United Kingdom. In large part, this was due to the work of the late H. J. Dyos, Professor of Urban History at the University of Leicester, as teacher, writer and propagandist. This book brings together some of Dyos's most important and influential essays, written over nearly thirty years. At one level, this book may be read as a fitting memorial to the work, influence and writings of a first-rate historian; at another, it furnishes an indispensable guide to the study of urban development and the nineteenth-century city and to the perspective which that study affords on the urban present.

Few modern women have had as great a political impact as Margaret Hilda Roberts, the grocer's daughter from Grantham who, as Margaret Thatcher, became Britain's first woman prime minister. The longest serving British premier of the twentieth century, Mrs Thatcher has been the subject of both adulation and vilification. In Margaret Thatcher: A Life and Legacy, the leading historian Sir David Cannadine sets Margaret Thatcher in the context of recent British history. With elegance, wit, and historical insight, Cannadine charts Mrs Thatcher's upbringing and influences, her political career and life after politics, the impact of her policies, and her personal reputation and political legacy. The book also features a glossary of key terms, a chronology, a 'dramatis personae' of significant figures of the period, and a guide to further reading. Written by one of our foremost international historians, it is an essential work for anyone interested in the life and work of a towering-and often controversial-figure in modern British history, as well as students, academics, and researchers in the fields of modern history and politics.

"History writing at its glorious best."--The New York Times "A triumphant success. [Blanning] brings knowledge, expertise, sound judgment and a colorful narrative style."--The Economist The New York Times bestselling volume in the Penguin History of Europe series Between the end of the Thirty Years' War and the Battle of Waterloo, Europe underwent an extraordinary transformatoin that saw five of the modern world's great revolutions--scientific, industrial, American, French, and romantic. In this much-admired addition to the monumental Penguin History of Europe series, Tim Blanning brilliantly investigates the forces that transformed Europe from a medieval society into a vigorous powerhose of the modern world. Blanning renders this vast subject immediate and absorbing by making fresh connections between the most mundane details of life and the major cultural, political, and technological transformations that birthed the modern age.

The Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, embraces over 500 years of British history, more than 60,000 sitters and explores ideas of social change, power and influence. Arguably as powerful and influential as any individual are the heads of state and empire, whose portraits are among the most popular in the Gallery’s Collection. For the exhibition that accompanies this book, the portraits of kings, queens, statesmen and stateswomen featured will go on tour for the first time, providing international audiences with the opportunity to encounter these famous historical and contemporary personalities face to face. The publication traces major events in British history and examines the ways in which royal portraiture has reflected individual sitters’ personalities and wider social, cultural and historical change. Works are arranged chronologically in sections, each of which is prefaced by an introductory text and timeline providing context to the period in question. Particularly significant portraits from each period are ac companied by extended captions that provide key information on the sitter and the artist. Tudors to Windsors also considers how each dynasty has been perceived and interpreted subsequently, with reference to popular culture and contemporary sources. A number of features on topics such as Royal Favourites, Royal Weddings, Satire, Royals at War, and Royal Fashion and Jewellery provide insights into particular aspects of royal portraiture and trends within the genre. The publication includes a foreword by the Gallery’s Director, a fully illustrated introductory essay discussing royal patronage and key artists in royal portraiture, and an essay by David Cannadine on the historical role of the monarchy in Britain.

From The Crown to Downton Abbey, the country house speaks to our fantasies of rustic splendour, style, and escape. Featuring three hundred photos from the National Trust, this lavish book draws back the curtain on the finest and most important historic homes in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, revealing these great houses' intriguing pasts, grand interiors, and vi-brant reinventions for the enjoyment of modern-day visitors, residents, and armchair travellers. Locations include Knole, Cragside, Castle Howard, Chatsworth, Polesden Lacey, Petworth, Castle Bodiam, Blenheim, Longleat, and dozens more. Illuminating essays by country house expert Jeremy Musson, legendary British author and historian David Cannadine, and contributing writers and scholars provide unique insight into centuries of life in a historic home. This is a rich visual resource for lovers of sumptuous interiors on a human scale, as well as grand exterior architecture and gorgeous landscapes. For Anglophiles, royals watchers, and lovers of the country house lifestyle, architecture, and interior design, this is a magnificent new look at landmark British country houses, the treasures they contain, and how they speak to our fantasies of rustic splendour and escape today.

Few modern women have had as great a political impact as Margaret Hilda Roberts, the grocer's daughter from Grantham who, as Margaret Thatcher, became Britain's first woman prime minister. The longest serving British premier of the twentieth century, Mrs Thatcher has been the subject of both adulation and vilification. In Margaret Thatcher: A Life and Legacy, the leading historian Sir David Cannadine sets Margaret Thatcher in the context of recent British history. With elegance, wit, and historical insight, Cannadine charts Mrs Thatcher's upbringing and influences, her political career and life after politics, the impact of her policies, and her personal reputation and political legacy. The book also features a glossary of key terms, a chronology, a 'dramatis personae' of significant figures of the period, and a guide to further reading. Written by one of our foremost international historians, it is an essential work for anyone interested in the life and work of a towering-and often controversial- figure in modern British history, as well as students, academics, and researchers in the fields of modern history and politics.

Across almost 50 years, Winston Churchill produced more than 500 paintings. His subjects included his family homes at Blenheim and Chartwell, evocative coastal scenes on the French Riviera, and many sun-drenched depictions of Marrakesh in Morocco, as well as still life pictures and an extraordinarily revealing self-portrait, painted during a particularly troubled time in his life. In war and peace, Churchill came to enjoy painting as his primary means of relaxation from the strain of public affairs.

In his introduction to Churchill: The Statesman as Artist, David Cannadine provides the most important account yet of Churchill's life in art, which was not just a private hobby, but also, from 1945 onwards, an essential element of his public fame. The first part of this book brings together for the first time all of Churchill's writings and speeches on art, not only Painting as a Pastime, but his addresses to the Royal Academy, his reviews of two of the Academy's summer exhibitions, and an important speech he delivered about art and freedom in 1937.

The second part of the book provides previously uncollected critical accounts of his work by some of Churchill's contemporaries: Augustus John's hitherto unpublished introduction to the Royal Academy exhibition of Churchill's paintings in 1959, and essays and reviews by Churchill s acquaintances Sir John Rothenstein, Professor Thomas Bodkin and the art critic Eric Newton. The book is lavishly illustrated with reproductions of many of Churchill's paintings, some of them appearing for the first time. Here is Churchill the artist more fully revealed than ever before.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2018 'This is stupendous. The British nineteenth century, in all its complexity, all its horror, all its energy, all its hopes is laid bare. This is the definitive history, and will remain so for generations' A.N. Wilson To live in nineteenth-century Britain was to experience an astonishing series of changes, of a kind for which there was simply no precedent in the human experience. There were revolutions in transport, communication, work; cities grew vast; scientific ideas made the intellectual landscape unrecognizable. This was an exhilarating time, but also a horrifying one. In his dazzling new book David Cannadine has created a bold, fascinating new interpretation of the British nineteenth century in all its energy and dynamism, darkness and vice. This was a country which saw itself at the summit of the world. And yet it was a society also convulsed by doubt, fear and introspection. Victorious Century reframes a time at once strangely familiar and yet wholly unlike our own.

Although it is widely believed that the British are obsessed with class to a degree unrivaled by any other nation, politicians in Britain are now calling for a "classless society," and scholars are concluding that class does not matter any more. But has class -- once considered the master narrative of British history -- fallen, failed, and been dismissed? In this wholly original and brilliantly argued book, David Cannadine shows that Britons have indeed been preoccupied with class, but in ways that are invariably ignorant and confused. Cannadine sets out to expose this ignorance and banish this confusion by imaginatively examining class itself, not so much as the history of society but as the history of the different ways in which Britons have thought about their society.

Cannadine proposes that "class" may best be understood as a shorthand term for three distinct but abiding ways in which the British have visualized their social worlds and identities: class as "us" versus "them;" class as "upper," "middle," and "lower"; and class as a seamless hierarchy of individual social relations. From the eighteenth through the twentieth century, he traces the ebb and flow of these three ways of viewing British society, unveiling the different purposes each model has served.

Encompassing social, intellectual, and political history, Cannadine uncovers the meanings of class from Adam Smith to Karl Marx to Margaret Thatcher, showing the key moments in which thinking about class shifted, such as the aftermath of the French Revolution and the rise the Labor Party in the early twentieth century. He cogently argues that Marxist attempts to view history in terms of class struggle are often as oversimplified as conservative approaches that deny the central place of class in British life. In conclusion, Cannadine considers whether it is possible or desirable to create a "classless society," a pledge made by John Major that has continued to resonate even after the conservative defeat. Until we know what class really means-and has meant-to the British, we cannot seriously address these questions.

Creative, erudite, and accessible, "The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain" offers a fresh and engaging perspective on both British history and the crucial topic of class.

The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperback For a man with such conventional tastes and views, George V had a revolutionary impact. Almost despite himself he marked a decisive break with his flamboyant predecessor Edward VII, inventing the modern monarchy, with its emphasis on frequent public appearances, family values and duty. George V was an effective war-leader and inventor of 'the House of Windsor'. In an era of ever greater media coverage - frequently filmed and initiating the British Empire Christmas broadcast - George became for 25 years a universally recognised figure. He was also the only British monarch to take his role as Emperor of India seriously. While his great rivals (Tsar Nicolas and Kaiser Wilhelm) ended their reigns in catastrophe, he plodded on. David Cannadine's sparkling account of his reign could not be more enjoyable, a masterclass in how to write about Monarchy, that central - if peculiar - pillar of British life.

David Cannadine's impassioned, controversial plea for us to recognise the importance of both equality and history Great works of history have so often had at their heart a wish to sift people in ways that have been profoundly damaging and provided intellectual justification for terrible political decisions. Again and again, categories have been found--religion, nation, class, gender, race, 'civilization'--that have sought to explain world events by fabricating some malevolent or helpless 'other'. The Undivided Past is an agonised attempt to understand how so much of the writing of history has been driven by a fatal desire to dramatize differences - to create an 'us versus them'. Is is above all an appeal to common humanity.

A comprehensive and authoritative history that explores the significance of one of the most famous buildings and institutions in England Westminster Abbey was one of the most powerful churches in Catholic Christendom before transforming into a Protestant icon of British national and imperial identity. Celebrating the 750th anniversary of the consecration of the current Abbey church building, this book features engaging essays by a group of distinguished scholars that focus on different, yet often overlapping, aspects of the Abbey's history: its architecture and monuments; its Catholic monks and Protestant clergy; its place in religious and political revolutions; its relationship to the monarchy and royal court; its estates and educational endeavors; its congregations; and its tourists. Clearly written and wide-ranging in scope, this generously illustrated volume is a fascinating exploration of Westminster Abbey's thousand-year history and its meaning, significance, and impact within society both in Britain and beyond. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in association with the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St Peter Westminster (Westminster Abbey)/Distributed by Yale University Press

The collected speeches of the most eloquent and expressive statesman of his time
The only political leader to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Winston Churchill used language as a weapon at a time when he possessed nothing more than an empty armory with which to fight his nation's enemies. In this major volume, David Cannadine-one of the foremost historians of modern Britain-selects thirty-three speeches ranging over fifty years, demonstrating how Churchill honed his rhetoric until the day when, in the words of Edward R. Murrow, "he mobilized the English language, and sent it into battle." A landmark of political speechmaking, perfect for the election year, "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" is an essential addition to the library of every Churchill fan.