ABSTRACT

In this hugely ambitious history of Britain, Eric Evans surveys every aspect of the period in which the country was transformed into the world’s first industrial power. This was an era of revolutionary change unparalleled in Britain, yet one in which transformation was achieved without political revolution. The unique combination of transition and revolution is a major theme in the book, which ranges across the embryonic empire, the Church, education, health, finance, and rural and urban life. Evans gives particular attention to the Great Reform Act of 1832. The Third Edition includes an entirely new introductory chapter, and is illustrated for the first time.

part |2 pages

Part One: Reconstruction and the Challenge of War, 1783–1815

chapter |4 pages

Framework of Events

chapter 11|12 pages

Ireland: The road to Union, 1782-1801

part |2 pages

Part Two: The Industrial Revolution and its Consequences

chapter 12|12 pages

The onset of industrialism

chapter 13|13 pages

Entrepreneurs and markets

chapter 17|11 pages

Standards of living and the quality of life

chapter 18|12 pages

Organizations of labour

chapter 19|9 pages

Class consciousness?

part |2 pages

Part Three: The Crucible of Reform, 1815–1846

chapter |4 pages

Framework of Events

chapter 21|8 pages

Liberal Toryism?

chapter 23|10 pages

The crisis of reform, 1827-1832

chapter 29|11 pages

The politics of pressure: I Chartism

part |2 pages

Part Four: Early Industrial Society, Refined and Tested, 1846–1870

chapter |4 pages

Framework of Events

chapter 31|11 pages

The zenith of the bourgeoisie

chapter 32|9 pages

The professionalization of government

chapter 33|10 pages

Urban Britain in the age of improvement

chapter 34|10 pages

Religion and society

chapter 35|10 pages

Leisure and responsibility

chapter 36|11 pages

Education and the consciousness of status

chapter 38|11 pages

Palmerston and the pax Britannica

chapter 39|10 pages

The revival of reform

chapter |78 pages

Compendium of Information

chapter |9 pages

Maps