The subject of the Namier/Brooke volumes concerns a period when politics were dominated in turn by the war with France, the accession of george III, the governance of India and the revolt of the American colonies. The repercussions of those problems upon the House provide the main themes of the Introductory Survey. Largely written by John Brooke, it draws heavily on Namier's views on mid to late eighteenth century politics. The three volumes contain 1,966 biographical articles and 314 constituency articles.

This famous essay is now republished, with a new Introduction by James Joll, at a time when its discussion of the power of nationalism in European politics seems particularly relevant. Concentrating on the revolutions in central and eastern Europe, and the relations of Germans, Poles, and Slavs, Namier explains how 1848 inaugurated a new age, not of liberalism as many revolutionaries hoped, but of a nationalism that was to destroy liberal constitutionalism. As Professor Joll demonstrates in his Introduction, the essay also reveals much about the prejudices and passion underlying the historical writing of one of Britain's most prominent historians. The modern reader will find in the range and cogency of this book not only many shafts of light on the year 1848 itself, but also fresh insights into historical forces still at work in our own time.