A new political history of modern Britain – entertaining, instructive and thought-provoking.
The history of democratic politics in Britain since the coming of universal male suffrage in 1918 is a dramatic one, crowded with events and colourful figures. As well as the great events of war and economic crises, and the quieter drama of constitutional change, this era has been studded with democratic protests of every sort.
The story opens more than 350 years ago. The Levellers of the 17th century, 18th-century radicals, the Chartists and the Reform Acts are all part of the unsteady and fiercely contested progress towards a democratic constitution. Dreams, visions and ideals are important too – of George Orwell, and Enoch Powell, Milton, Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke, Churchill and Lord Salisbury, Aneurin Bevan and Tony Benn – for they have also shaped our outlook.
The history of democratic politics in Britain since the coming of universal male suffrage in 1918 is a dramatic one, crowded with events and colourful figures. As well as the great events of war and economic crises, and the quieter drama of constitutional change, this era has been studded with democratic protests of every sort.
The story opens more than 350 years ago. The Levellers of the 17th century, 18th-century radicals, the Chartists and the Reform Acts are all part of the unsteady and fiercely contested progress towards a democratic constitution. Dreams, visions and ideals are important too – of George Orwell, and Enoch Powell, Milton, Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke, Churchill and Lord Salisbury, Aneurin Bevan and Tony Benn – for they have also shaped our outlook.
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Reviews
hugely insightful...this paperback edition is a fascinating look at 20th century Britain
Masterly...This book's real virtue lies in its clarity and the reminder that democracy can never be taken for granted.
A lucid and revealing insight into the convulsions that have defined Britain for ninety years.
Marquand delivers some thought-provoking verdicts
In this rich, articulate book, the rickety trajectory of UK politics over the last century - with a succession of weird individuals at the helm - is deftly related by a historian with insider knowledge.