At the turn of the twenty-first century Britain is in a state of change. It is being transformed by the ongoing process of devolution as well as by its increasing multi-ethnicity. At the same time the relationship with the European Union remains controversial. This book charts these transformations in the context of the changes Britain experienced a century ago, at the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on British politics, culture and literature the articles examine a range of topics, including models of utopian and apocalyptic thought, the contemporary celebrity cult, the state of literary theory in Britain and the recent “boom” in lyrical poetry and the “drama of blood and sperm”.

At the turn of the twenty-first century Britain is in a state of change. It is being transformed by the ongoing process of devolution as well as by its increasing multi-ethnicity. At the same time the relationship with the European Union remains controversial. This book charts these transformations in the context of the changes Britain experienced a century ago, at the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on British politics, culture and literature the articles examine a range of topics, including models of utopian and apocalyptic thought, the contemporary celebrity cult, the state of literary theory in Britain and the recent "boom" in lyrical poetry and the "drama of blood sperm". The book is of interest to university lecturers, teachers, students of English and the general reader interested in the present condition of the United Kingdom. Book jacket.

A richly detailed history of Britain at its imperial zenith, revealing the simmering tensions and explosive rivalries beneath the opulent surface of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. The popular memory of Britain in the years before the Great War is of a powerful, contented, orderly, and thriving country. Britain commanded a vast empire: she bestrode international commerce. Her citizens were living longer, profiting from civil liberties their grandparents only dreamed of and enjoying an expanding range of comforts and pastimes. The mood of pride and self-confidence can be seen in Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches, newsreels of George V’s coronation, and London’s great Edwardian palaces. Yet beneath the surface things were very different In The Age of Decadence, Simon Heffer exposes the contradictions of late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain. He explains how, despite the nation’s massive power, a mismanaged war against the Boers in South Africa created profound doubts about her imperial destiny. He shows how attempts to secure vital social reforms prompted the twentieth century’s gravest constitutional crisis—and coincided with the worst industrial unrest in British history. He describes how politicians who conceded the vote to millions more men disregarded women so utterly that female suffragists’ public protest bordered on terrorism. He depicts a ruling class that fell prey to degeneracy and scandal. He analyses a national psyche that embraced the motor-car, the sensationalist press, and the science fiction of H. G. Wells, but also the nostalgia of A. E. Housman.

In the mid-1990s, Ireland was experiencing the "best of times". The Celtic Tiger seemed to instil in the national consciousness that poverty was a problem of the past. The impressive economic performance ensured that the Republic occupied one of the top positions among the world’s economic powers. During the boom, dissident voices continuously criticised what they considered to be a mirage, identifying the precariousness of its structures and foretelling its eventual crash. The 2008 recession proved them right. Throughout this time, the Irish contemporary short story expressed distrust. Enabled by its capacity to reflect change with immediacy and dexterity, the short story saw through the smokescreen created by the Celtic Tiger discourse of well-being. It reinterpreted and captured the worst and the best of the country and became a bridge connecting tradition and modernity. The major objective of this book is to analyse the interactions between fiction and reality during this period in Ireland by studying the short stories written by old and emergent voices published between the birth of the Celtic Tiger in 1995 up to its immediate aftermath in 2013.

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.

"Europe" is one of the defining issues of our times. Politically, economically, legally, culturally, it is a source of division to some and inspiration for others. This book contains essays written by eminent authors to celebrate the Centenary of the British Academy, the country's leading academic institution for Social Sciences and the Humanities. Their central theme is "Britain's Contribution to the Europe of the Twenty-First Century" and it is approached in an inter-disciplinary way from the different angles of law, politics, economics and the humanities. Contributors: Guido Alpa; Stephen Bann FBA; Vernon Bogdanor CBE, FRSA, FBA; Keith Clark, BCL; Kenneth Dyson FBA, FRHS; David Edward CMG, FRSE; Sir John Elliott, FBA, AAAS; Laurent Fabius; The Rt. Hon. Frank Field MP; Sir Roy Goode QC, CBE, FBA; The Rt. Hon. The Lord Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE; Giorgio La Malfa; Noelle Lenoir; Nicholas Mann CBE; Basil Markesinis QC, DCL, FBA; Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, DBE, FBA; The Rt. Hon. The Lord Woolf of Barnes.

These essays set the relationship between the Army and society in the context of the 20th century as a whole. They then consider the key areas of current controversy - the pressure on the Army caused by changes in society, the Army's "right to be different", race, homosexuality and gender.

From Tottel's Miscellany (1557) to the last twentieth-century Oxford Book of English Verse (1999), anthologies have been a prime institution for the preservation and mediation of poetry. The importance of anthologies for creating and re-creating the canon of English poetry, for introducing ‘new' programmes of poetry, as a record of changing poetic fashions, audience tastes and reading practices, or as a profitable literary commodity has often been asserted. Despite its impact, however, the poetry anthology in itself has attracted surprisingly little critical interest in Britain or elsewhere in the English-speaking world. This volume is the first publication to explore the largely unmapped field of poetry anthologies in Britain. Essays written from a wide range of perspectives in literary and cultural studies, and the point of view of poets, editors, publishers and cultural institutions, aim to do justice to the typological, functional and historical variety with which this form of publication has manifested itself - from early modern print culture to the postmodern age of the world wide web.

A fresh set of concerns face the twenty-first century British novelist. In this study of the four key novelists Zadie Smith, Nadeem Aslam, Hari Kunzru and David Mitchell, the the changes in narrative approaches and critical directions of a new post-1989 fiction are explored. Close readings of the writers are informed by a range of contemporary theorists, critics and commentators to reveal the emphases of twenty-first century fiction. Terror, fear, consumerism, multinationalism, and corporatism: the terms circulating in culture and social networks are evident in Smith's faith in ethical living, Aslam's consideration of multiculturalism, the novels Kunzru builds around the politics of identity and in the importance Mitchell places on the interconnectedness of human life. By putting the emergence of a new British literary dynamic in the context of ethical as well as global contexts, this study analyzes the transformed fictional perceptions of a world no longer defined by the stand off of super powers.

Provides a comprehensive survey of the key events and personalities of this period.