Britain is celebrated for having avoided the extremism, political violence and instability that blighted many European countries between the two world wars. But her success was a closer thing than has been realized. Disillusionment with parliamentary democracy, outbreaks of fascist violence and fears of communist subversion in industry and the Empire ran through the entire period.
Fascist organizations may have failed to attract the support they achieved elsewhere but fascist ideas were adopted from top to bottom of society and by men and women in all parts of the country. This book will demonstrate for the first time the true spread and depth of fascist beliefs - and the extent to which they were distinctly British. Like the Continental movements, fascism in the UK encompassed the corporate state, charismatic leadership and youthful rejection of the decadent rule of the older generation. But was it less anti-Semitic? Was it readier to adopt a feminist agenda? And was the fact that Britain finally repudiated fascism more a matter of timing and chance than of fundamental obstacles in British society and politics?
Hurrah for the Blackshirts!, rich in anecdotes and extraordinary characters, shows us an inter-war Britain on the high-road to fascism but never quite arriving at its destination.
Cartoons have the astonishing power to encapsulate a historical moment or popular mood, and this magnificent new survey tells the story of modern Britain through hundreds of the finest examples. Year by year, from the death of Queen Victoria to the downfall of Saddam Hussein, it shows the views taken by the nation's leading cartoonists of the issues and personalities that dominated the news
Cartoons have the astonishing power to encapsulate a historical moment or popular mood, and this magnificent new survey tells the story of modern Britain through hundreds of the finest examples.
Year by year, from the death of Queen Victoria to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it shows the views taken by the nation's leading cartoonists of the issues and personalities that dominated the news
In 1916, Eamon de Valera arrived on the Irish scene and as a result, so we are told, the fairies left. Such combining of fact and folklore is the essence of Peter Somerville-Large's fascinating history of fifty years of life in Ireland, from 1916 to 1966. This book does not shrink from describing the tragedies and poverty of those years, while brimming with cultural, domestic and political detail, unsullied by either proselytism or sentimentality. Throughout, the reader can hear the voices of the Irish: comments on the frequent crises in the country by contemporary writers, both famous and obscure, are seamlessly woven into the text, as are direct memories of those who lived through the events described. Peter Somerville-Large has a talent for observation, and his interest in the people he writes about is palpable. That Irish Voices is not just a history, but a history of life, is significant - a joy to read.
The A-Z Guide to Modern British History is a comprehensive, entertaining survey of the events, people and themes that make us who we are, written by two of the country's leading scholars of the subject. In 200 concise essays, covering topics as diverse as pornography and the poll tax, the Blitz and New Labour, the authors explore the interwoven culture, society, politics and economics of the recent past. The object of the Guide is not only to lay bare the facts of today's Britain, but also to provoke debate. Bombarded by information as never before, we all need to appreciate the extent to which seemingly disparate events connect with other, and echo previous developments which we are in danger of forgetting. The entries offer a consistent line of argument with a refreshing disrespect for old orthodoxies; at the same time, readers are given the essential facts on which to base their own opinions. The A-Z Guide to Modern British History will be invaluable to students and general readers alike. Read separately, its entries are a mine of useful information; taken together, they build a vivid, compelling and controversial picture of Britain at the start of the twenty-first century.
When this book begins, in the reign of Edward VII, Great Britain commands the mightiest empire the world has ever seen. By the time it ends, with the Coronation of Elizabeth II, Britain has emerged victorious from a world war, but ruined as a world power. How did Britain's power and influence decline? This is one of the questions which A. N. Wilson seeks to answer in his masterly follow-up to The Victorians.
When this book begins, in the reign of Edward VII, Great Britain commands the mightiest empire the world has ever seen. By the time it ends, with the Coronation of Elizabeth II, Britain has emerged victorious from a world war, but ruined as a world power. How did Britain's power and influence decline? This is one of the questions which A. N. Wilson seeks to answer in his masterly follow-up to The Victorians. As in the previous book, however, he has painted the portrait of an age. The extraordinary advance of science and technology, the changes in fashion, art, music and literature, the rise of feminism, and the changes in the class system are given as much space as the wars and the political struggles at home and abroad. We follow Dr Crippen on his ill-fated attempt to murder his wife and elope with his mistress. We meet the Rector of Stiffkey - the 'prostitute's padre' - who died the death of an early Christian martyr in a lion's cage. We share the excitement of the discovery of radar, and of the structure of DNA, as well as the moral dilemmas of those who pioneered the nuclear bomb. We travel the first half of the twentieth-century in the company of the heroic and the discreditable, the low and the great: Ezra Pound, Nancy Astor, Noel Coward and Vera Lynn, as well as with Baldwin, Chamberlain, Hitler and Churchill.
The challenges of the 1930s and the drama of the Second World War dominate the book's central story. Although the political classes failed in their duty to the poor, and failed to avert a war, Wilson traces the way that the war against Hitler changed Britain forever. It was, he argues, a noble struggle which saved the world and ruined Britain.
This memoir, acknowledged as a masterpiece, grew out of two great loves - for Woodbrook and for Phoebe, his pupil. In it he builds up a delicate, lyrical picture of a gentle pre-war society, of Irish history and troubled Anglo-Irish relations, and of a delightful family. Above all, his story reverberates with the enchantment of falling in love and with the desolation of bereavement.
In September 1938, Hitler had been in power for more than five years, and had abrogated most of the constraints placed on German militarism by the Treaty of Versailles. Earlier that year he had forced Austria into his Third Reich without a single shot fired, and his sights were set on Czechoslovakia. It was in this climate that a coup was born, led by Lieutenant Colonel Hans Oster of German military leaders, members of the Berlin police, local troop commanders, civil authorities, religious leaders, and a courageous group of resisters who assembled in a mission to unseat, and even kill, Hitler. The Oster Conspiracy of 1938 mines the cultural and political milieu of post-WWI Europe, the forces and personal histories that motivated the group to such decisive and dangerous action, and the catalyst of their ultimate failure. This is narrative history at its best: revelatory, well documented with archival material, people with a rich cast of characters, fast-paced, and highly provocative.