United Kingdom

Britain, 1815–1914

Documentary sources of the period include G.M. Young and W.D. Handcock (eds.), English Historical Documents, 1833–1874 (1956); and W.D. Handcock (ed.), English Historical Documents, 1874–1914 (1977). Elie Halévy, A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, 2nd rev. ed., 6 vol. in 7 (1949–52; originally published in French, 5 vol., 1912–32), has been extremely influential on subsequent accounts, even though it was written long ago. The major source on most aspects of British history apart from politics is now F.M.L. Thompson (ed.), The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750–1950, 3 vol. (1990). The Oxford series volumes are Llewellyn Woodward, The Age of Reform, 1815–1870, 2nd ed. (1962, reprinted 1979); and K. Theodore Hoppen, The New Oxford History of England: The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846–1886 (1998). Other comprehensive histories include Colin Matthew (ed.), The Short Oxford History of the British Isles: The Nineteenth Century (2000); G.M. Young, Portrait of an Age: Victorian England, new annotated ed. (1977), a delightful and very influential short work; and Asa Briggs, The Age of Improvement (1959, reissued 1979). José Harris, The Penguin Social History of Britain: Private Lives, Public Spirit: Britain Taken 1870–1914 (1993), is one of the most interesting of the many surveys of British history published. Patrick Joyce, The Oxford Reader on Class (1995), has much information on the role of class in British history. Also informative are Asa Briggs, Victorian People: A Reassessment of Persons and Themes, 1851–67, rev. ed. (1996), Victorian Cities, new ed. (1968), and Victorian Things, rev. ed. (2003). Walter E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830–1870 (1957); and Samuel Hynes, The Edwardian Turn of Mind (1968), observe cultural and intellectual life. Geoffrey Best, Mid-Victorian Britain, 1851–1875, rev. ed. (1973); and William L. Burn, The Age of Equipoise: A Study of the Mid-Victorian Generation (1964), focus on the middle period of the century. Economic conditions are surveyed in W.H.B. Court, A Concise Economic History of Britain, from 1750 to Recent Times (1954, reprinted 1976). Foreign relations, continental and colonial, and a shift in influence are discussed in R.W. Seton-Watson, Britain in Europe, 1789–1914: A Survey of Foreign Policy (1937, reprinted 1968); C.E. Carrington, The British Overseas: Exploits of a Nation of Shopkeepers, 2nd ed. (1968); Bernard Porter, Britain, Europe, and the World, 1850–1986: Delusions of Grandeur, 2nd ed. (1987); and Keith Robbins, The Eclipse of a Great Power: Modern Britain, 1870–1975 (1983). The transition from Victorian Britain to the 20th century is examined in Donald Read, Edwardian England, 1901–15 (1972).

Britain since 1914