This companion to Elton: The Tudor Constitution, Kenyon: The Stuart Constitution and Williams: The Eighteenth Century Constitution is a collection of documents illustrating constitutional, political, administrative and ecclesiastical history. Professor Hanham lays special emphasis on constitutional theory and the party system, because, during the nineteenth century, men were consciously remoulding the character of their institutions and parliamentary government meant government by party. There are also important sections on the development of the new career civil service and the central departments of government. The 310 documents come from a wide range of published and unpublished sources. They have been arranged under the following headings: The Theory of the Constitution, Cabinet Government, Parliament, Parties and Elections, Central and Local Administration, The Administration of Justice, Church and State, and Ireland. Professor Hanham has provided introductions to each section of documents, relating them to the major political developments and debates of the period.

The Routledge Companion to Britain in the Nineteenth Century, 1815–1914 is an accessible and indispensable compendium of essential information on the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Using chronologies, maps, glossaries, an extensive bibliography, a wealth of statistical information and nearly two hundred biographies of key figures, this clear and concise book provides a comprehensive guide to modern British history from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the outbreak of the First World War. As well as the key areas of political, economic and social development of the era, this book also covers the increasingly emergent themes of sexuality, leisure, gender and the environment, exploring in detail the following aspects of the nineteenth century: parliamentary and political reform chartism, radicalism and popular protest the Irish Question the rise of Imperialism the regulation of sexuality and vice the development of organised sport and leisure the rise of consumer society. This book is an ideal reference resource for students and teachers alike.

To all thoughtful people World War I has brought to intention the importance of a knowledge of 19th Century European history. For without such knowledge no one can understand, or begin to understand, the significance of the forces that have made it, the vastness of the issues involved, the nature of what is indisputably one of the gravest crises in the history of mankind. No citizen of a free country who takes his citizenship seriously, who considers himself responsible, to the full extent of his personal influence, for the character and conduct of his government, can, without the crudest self-stultification, admit that he knows nothing and cares nothing about the history of Europe. Contents: The Old Regime in Europe The Old Regime in France Beginnings of the Revolution The Making of the Constitution The Legislative Assembly The Convention The Directory The Consulate The Early Years of the Empire The Empire at Its Height The Decline and Fall of Napoleon The Congresses France Under the Restoration Revolutions Beyond France The Reign of Louis Philippe Central Europe in Revolt The Second French Republic and the Founding of the Second Empire The Making of the Kingdom of Italy The Unification of Germany The Second Empire and the Franco-Prussian War The German Empire France Under the Third Republic The Kingdom of Italy Since 1870 Austria-Hungary Since 1848 England From 1815 to 1868 England Since 1868 The British Empire The Partition of Africa Spain and Portugal Holland and Belgium Since 1830 Switzerland The Scandinavian States The Disruption of the Ottoman Empire and the Rise of the Balkan States Russia to the War With Japan The Far East Russia Since the 1905 War With Japan The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 The European War Making the Peace

Much new material has been incorporated in this expanded and restructured second edition, including recently uncovered evidence about the social and economic aspects of the century that has changed perspectives and challenged many earlier assumptions.

This fully revised and updated edition of Norman McCord's authoritative introduction to nineteenth century British history has been extended to cover the period up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The nineteenth and early twentieth century saw the transformation of Britain from a predominantly rural to a largely urban society with an economy based upon manufacturing, finance, and trade, and from a society governed mainly by a landed aristocracy to what was increasingly a mass democracy. The authors chart the development of a modern state equipped with a large and expanding bureaucracy, the expansion of overseas territories into one of the world's greatest empires, and changes in religion, social attitudes, and culture. The book divides the era into four chronological periods, with chapters on the political background, administrative development, and social, economic, and cultural changes in each period. Exploring major themes such as the massive increase in population, the question of class, the scope of state activity, and the development of consumerism, leisure, and entertainment, and including a select bibliography and biographical appendix, this updated new edition provides the ultimate introduction to British history between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the outbreak of the First World War.

Parliamentary theory, practices, discourses, and institutions constitute a distinctively European contribution to modern politics. Taking a broad historical perspective, this cross-disciplinary, innovative, and rigorous collection locates the essence of parliamentarism in four key aspects—deliberation, representation, responsibility, and sovereignty—and explores the different ways in which they have been contested, reshaped, and implemented in a series of representative national and regional case studies. As one of the first comparative studies in conceptual history, this volume focuses on debates about the nature of parliament and parliamentarism within and across different European countries, representative institutions, and genres of political discourse.

This book examines the influence of constitutional legal paradigms upon the political stability and viability of states. It contributes to the literature in the field by focussing on how constitutional flexibility may have led to the rise of 'successful' states and to the decline of 'unsuccessful' states, by promoting stability. Divided into two parts, the book considers theories of the rise and fall of civilizations and individual states, explains the concept of hard and soft constitutions and applies this concept to different types of state models. A series of international case studies in the second part of the book identifies the key dynamics in legal, political and economic history and includes the UK, US, New Zealand and Eastern Europe.

A sweeping history of nineteenth-century Britain by one of the world's most respected historians. "An evocative account . . .[Cannadine] tells his own story persuasively and exceedingly well.” —The Wall Street Journal To live in nineteenth-century Britain was to experience an astonishing and unprecedented series of changes. Cities grew vast; there were revolutions in transportation, communication, science, and work--all while a growing religious skepticism rendered the intellectual landscape increasingly unrecognizable. It was an exhilarating time, and as a result, most of the countries in the world that experienced these changes were racked by political and social unrest. Britain, however, maintained a stable polity at home, and as a result it quickly found itself in a position of global leadership. In this major new work, leading historian David Cannadine has created a bold, fascinating new interpretation of nineteenth-century Britain. Britain was a country that saw itself at the summit of the world and, by some measures, this was indeed true. It had become the largest empire in history: its political stability positioned it as the leader of the new global economy and allowed it to construct the largest navy ever built. And yet it was also a society permeated with doubt, fear, and introspection. Repeatedly, politicians and writers felt themselves to be staring into the abyss and what is seen as an era of irritating self-belief was in fact obsessed with its own fragility, whether as a great power or as a moral force. Victorious Century is a comprehensive and extraordinarily stimulating history--its author catches the relish, humor and staginess of the age, but also the dilemmas faced by Britain's citizens, ones we remain familiar with today.

This book offers an original interpretation of the history of falling fertilities in Britain between 1860 and 1940. It integrates the approaches of the social sciences and of demographic, feminist, and labour history with intellectual, social, and political history. It exposes the conceptual and statistical inadequacies of the orthodox picture of a national, unitary class-differential fertility decline, and presents an entirely new analysis of the famous 1911 fertility census of England and Wales. Surprising and important findings emerge concerning the principal methods of birth control: births were spaced from early on in marriage; and sexual abstinence by married couples was a far more significant practice than previously imagined. The author presents a new general approach to the study of fertility change, raising central issues concerning the relationship between history and social science.