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The first volume of Sir George Clark's Oxford History of England was published in 1934. Over the following 50 years that series established itself as a standard work of reference, and a repertoire of scholarship. The New Oxford History of England, of which this is the first volume, is its successor. Each volume will set out an authoritative view of the present state of scholarship, presenting a distillation of the knowledge built up by a half-century's research and publication of new sources, and incorporating the perspectives and judgements of modern scholars.
This book offers a major reassessment of the place of the propertied class in eighteenth-century England. The common view of politics in this period is one of aristocratic dominance coexisting with plebeian vitality. Langford explores the terrain which lay between the high ground of elite rule and the low ground of popular politics, and shows that the Georgians were more active in this arena than is generally appreciated.
In the seventeenth century the English were often depicted as a nation of barbarians, fanatics, and king-killers. Two hundred years later they were more likely to be seen as the triumphant possessors of a unique political stability, vigorous industrial revolution, and a world-wide empire.These may have been British achievements; but the virtues which brought about this transformation tended to be perceived as specifically English. Ideas of what constituted Englishness changed from a stock notion of waywardness and unpredictability to one of discipline and dedication. The evolutionof the so-called national character - today once more the subject of scrutiny and debate - is traced through the impressions and analyses of foreign observers, and related to English ambitions and anxieties during a period of intense change.
For some time before his death in July 2015, former colleagues and students of Paul Langford had discussed the possibility of organising a festschrift to celebrate his remarkable contribution to eighteenth-century history. It was planned for 2019 to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the appearance of his seminal A Polite and Commercial People, the opening volume in the New Oxford History of England series, Paul's best-known and most influential publication. He was delighted to hear of these plans and the tragic news of his death only made the contributors more determined to see the project through to completion. The importance of A Polite and Commercial People within its own time is u...
This volume takes a thematic approach to the history of the eighteenth century in the British Isles, covering such issues as domestic politics (including popular political culture), religious developments and change, and social and demographic structure and growth. Paul Langford heads a leading team of contributors, to present a lively picture of an era of intense change and growth in which all parts of Britain and Ireland were increasingly bound together by economic expansion and political unification.
Part of The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, this book spans from the aftermath of the Revolution of 1688 to Pitt the Younger's defeat at attempted parliamentary reform.
The Excise Crisis Society and Politics in the Age of Walpole