This book presents a study of Lord Salisbury, British prime minister in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, whose political philosophy was reactionary and defeatist, and who is remembered for an irony that was wounding as well as diverting.

A New York Times 2016 Notable BookRobert Tombs’s momentous The English and Their History is both a startlingly fresh and a uniquely inclusive account of the people who have a claim to be the oldest nation in the world. The English first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognizable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions ca...

‘A riveting account of the pre-First World War years . . . The Age of Decadence is an enormously impressive and enjoyable read.’ Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times‘A magnificent account of a less than magnificent epoch.’ Jonathan Meades, Literary ReviewThe folk-memory of Britain in the years before the Great War is of a powerful, contented, orderly and thriving country. She commanded a vast empire. She bestrode inter...

First published as part of the best-selling The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Christopher Harvie and Colin Matthew's Very Short Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Britain is a sharp but subtle account of remarkable economic and social change and an even more remarkable political stability. Britain in 1789 was overwhelmingly rural, agrarian, multilingual, and almost half Celtic. By 1914, when it faced its greatest test since the defeat of Napoleon, it was largely ...

Ireland's bestselling popular historian tells the story of contemporary Ireland - controversial, authoritative and highly readable. Tim Pat Coogan's biographies of Michael Collins and DeValera and his studies of the IRA, the Troubles and the Irish Diaspora have transformed our understanding of contemporary Ireland, and all have been massive bestsellers. Now he has produced a major history of Ireland in the twentieth century. Covering both South and North and dealing with cultural and socia...

A sweeping history of nineteenth-century Britain by one of the world's most respected historians."An evocative account . . .[Cannadine] tells his own story persuasively and exceedingly well.” —The Wall Street JournalTo live in nineteenth-century Britain was to experience an astonishing and unprecedented series of changes. Cities grew vast; there were revolutions in transportation, communication, science, and work--all while a growi...

A critical examination of Australia's involvement in the Boer War and its lasting impact on national identity. Why did Australia lose 600 men in a three-year conflict fought in Africa? Henry Reynolds dissects Australia's commitment to Britain's wars overseas, revealing how it shaped a national identity and established a dangerous precedent.Unnecessary Wars explores the mythology surrounding Australia's colonial soldiers and the far-reaching consequences of...

What was it that the British people believed they were fighting for in 1914–18? This compelling history of the British home front during the First World War offers an entirely new account of how British society understood and endured the war. Drawing on official archives, memoirs, diaries and letters, Adrian Gregory sheds new light on the public reaction to the war, examining the role of propaganda and rumour in fostering patriotism and hatred of the enemy. He shows the importance of the e...

The years of the Irish revolution were the crucible of modern Ireland. Richard Killeen's authoritative survey of the period is an ideal introduction to this tumultuous time. The Irish revolution began with the Ulster crisis of 1912 followed by the Irish Nationalist Party securing the passage of the Home Rule Act in 1914. By then, however, the Great War had broken out: the Act was suspended for the duration of the war, with the violent Ulster opposition to it still unresolved. But the war c...

The history of the Conservative party has, extraordinarily, rarely been written in a single volume for the general reader. There are academic multi-volume accounts and a multitude of smaller books with limited historical scope. But now, Robin Harris, Margaret Thatcher's speechwriter and party insider, has produced this authoritative but lively history book which tells the whole story and fills a gaping hole in Britain's historiographical record.Taking as his starting point the larg...

Lord Salisbury dominated the late Victorian political scene. He was Prime Minister for much of the time and also Foreign Secretary, very often holding down the two positions concurrently. In achievement and ability he was at least the equal of Disraeli and Gladstone though less well remembered. In part that was the result of his own aloof and laodicean temperament but it was also the fault of there being no faintly adequate modern biography (his daughter, Lady Gwendolen Cecil wrote a magni...

Completely revised and updated, this rich and readable history of modern Ireland covers the political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural dimensions of the country's development from the origins of the Irish Question to the present day. A new introductory chapter covers the period prior to Union, a new concluding chapter takes Ireland into the twenty-first century, and there are extensive revisions and updates throughout.