ABSTRACT
The conversion of the intellectual radicalism of the 1820s and 1830s into the municipal communalism of the Golden Age took place within elite culture, guided by common interests and expertise, fired by Nonconformism, embodied in both T. H. Huxley and, Joseph Chamberlain. The Golden Age project was interdisciplinary, involving historians and lawyers at Nottingham Trent University and historians of science, technology, and social change from a variety of academic institutions in a series of seminars during 1997-1999. The starting point is Britain's position as the foremost economy exploiting global expansion, new ideas and institutional changes. At a time when late industralizers such as Germany, Russia, Japan or Italy were aiming to devise workable schemes of statist invertentionism around a goal of industrial modernization, Britain was moving beyond a Golden Age towards one of enhanced securities. In terms of competitive commercial and technological performance, riding on the back of the speedily emerging international economy and gold standard, Britain experienced the greatest success.
