The Edwardians

by Roy Hattersley

Paper Book, 2006

Status

Available

Call number

941.0823

Collection

Publication

London : Abacus, 2006.

Description

Edwardian Britain is the quintessential age of nostalgia, often seen as the last long summer afternoon before the cataclysmic changes of the twentieth century began to take form. The class system remained rigidly in place and thousands were employed in domestic service. The habits and sports of the aristocracy were an everyday indulgence. But it was an age of invention as well as tradition. It saw the first widespread use of the motor car, the first aeroplane and the first use of the telegraph. It was also a time of vastly improved education and the public appetite for authors such as Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and E. M. Forster was increased by greater literacy. There were signs too, of the corner history was soon to turn, with the problematic Boer War hinting at a new British weakness overseas and the drive for Votes for Women and Home Rule for Ireland pushing the boundaries of the social and political landscape. In this major work of history, Roy Hattersley has been given exclusive access to many new documents to produce this magisterial new appraisal of a legendary age.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Kate_JJM
Roy Hattersley has written this, I think, forgetting that not everyone is as well-acquainted with the dramatis personae as he is. He does not give them very lively, individual personalities, and so, while interesting and well-written stylistically, it is somewhat difficult to keep track of who is
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who and what alliances they have in the chapters on politics. The other chapters, covering areas such as sport, the arts, science and engineering, etc., are easier to digest.
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LibraryThing member eglinton
Growing pains all round as the old certainties loosened to give shape to our age (or at least to the 20th century world of recent memory). Hattersley covers all the key “Strange Death” trends - women’s suffrage, Ireland, the People’s Budget - as well as now forgotten crazes: the Blue Riband
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of the Atlantic, a prize for the fastest liner crossing, or the madcap 1910 air race from London to Manchester. The author is drawn to mavericks like Joseph Chamberlain, or Northcliffe so there’s always a tinge of admiration as he recounts their sallies and switches. Not so with the injudicious Kaiser Wilhelm or King Edward though, nor adventurers like Aurel Stein, a new name to me, meting out plunder and condescension beyond the Hindu Kush. There and elsewhere the old Boys Own icons of imperial heroism, the Scotts and Baden Powells, are nodded to, but of course, deflated somewhat. Eminent Edwardians right? The storytelling is sometimes a bit uneven, but in a sense the detail is more of interest than the broad sweep of the period, which is familiar enough.
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Language

Physical description

528 p.; 20 cm

ISBN

9780349116624

Barcode

91100000176793

DDC/MDS

941.0823
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