British and Irish Modern History

Blood, Sweat, and Toil is the first major history of the British working class in the Second World War. The book integrates social, political, and labour history and reflects the most recent scholarship and debates on social class, gender, and the forging of identities. It examines the war's impact on workers in the varied contexts of the family, military service, the workplace, local communities and the nation. Previous studies of the Home Front have analyzed the lives of civilians, but they have neglected the importance of social class in defining popular experience and its centrality in public attitudes, official policy, and the politics of the war years. Contrary to accounts that view the war as eroding class divisions and creating a new sense of social unity in Britain, this book argues that the 1940s was a crucial decade in which the deeply fragmented working class of the interwar decades was ‘remade’, achieving new collective status, power, and solidarity. It criticizes recent revisionist scholarship that has downplayed the significance of class in British society. Extensively researched, using official documents, diaries and letters, and the records of trade unions and numerous other institutions, the book traces the rapid growth of trade unionism, joint consultation, and strike actions in the war years. It also analyses the mobilization of women into factories and the uniformed services and the lives of men conscripted into the army, showing how these experiences shaped their social attitudes and aspirations. Using opinion polls and other evidence the book traces the evolution of popular political attitudes from the evacuation of 1939 and the desperate months of late 1940 to the election of 1945, opposing recent claims that the electorate was indifferent or apathetic at the war's end, but also eschewing blanket assumptions about popular radicalization. Labour was an active agent in fashioning itself as both a national progressive party and the representative of working-class interests in 1945; far from a mere passive beneficiary of anti-Tory feeling, it gave organizational form to the idealism and the demand for significant change that the war had generated.

In the 18th century, the considerable degree of social mobility in British society, especially between the upper and middling ranks, was arguably one of the important factors contributing to political and social stability. The extent of that mobility among the members of the nation’s legislature was particularly important in this regard. In this analysis, the book examines how far the House of Commons reflected and was itself affected by such social mobility. Enquiry is directed at the growth in number of ‘non-élite’ members of parliament; men without land. The book gives a sense of the fabric of 18th-century British society by describing the subtle distinctions in the social and economic order.

This book covers the history of British electioneering from the 18th century right up to the present day. It explores the relationship between British politicians and their public as well as the important changes that have taken place, especially in the television age. It examines what the current state of electioneering in Britain implies for the future, asking questions as to how the media can shape that future. The book argues that in the past, British politics has been characterized by public rituals, intended to make politicians more legitimate by obliging them to face an often irreverent public. In 18th-century politics and Victorian and Edwardian elections, face-to-face interaction was central. This continued between the wars, despite the emergence of the new mass communication media of radio and cinema. However, the same cannot be said of the post-war era and the rise of television. Today, most politicians are content to offer the semblance of meaningful engagement with the public — hence, meetings are designed to ensure that politicians only come into contact with their party. Where Lloyd George and Churchill relished a tumultuous public meeting, their modern counterparts are more risk-averse. This book questions whether we can persuade our broadcasters that encounters with the public must form a staple of modern politics.

Lord Derby was the first British statesman to become prime minister three times. He remains the longest serving party leader in modern British politics, heading the Conservative party for twenty-two years from 1846 to 1868. He abolished slavery in the British Empire, established a national system of education in Ireland, was a prominent advocate for the 1832 Reform Act and, as prime minister, oversaw the introduction of the Second Reform Act (1867). Yet no biography of Derby, based upon his papers and correspondence, has previously been published. This book revises the conventional portrait of Derby as a dull and apathetic politician, revealing him as a complex, astute, influential, and significant figure, who had a profound effect on the politics and society of his time. As the author shows, far from being an uninterested dilettante, Derby played an instrumental role in directing Britain's path through the historic opportunities and challenges confronting the nation at a time of increasing political participation, industrial pre-eminence, urban growth, colonial expansion, religious controversy, and Irish tragedy.

This book gives a full biography of the 14th Earl of Derby — the first British statesman to become prime minister three times, and the longest serving party leader in modern British party politics. This book revises the conventional view of Derby's personality, career, and beliefs, revealing him as a complex and influential figure, a man who abolished slavery in the British Empire, established a national system of education in Ireland, was a prominent advocate for the 1832 Reform Act, and oversaw the introduction of the Second Reform Act in 1867. In short, he played an instrumental role in directing Britain's path through the historic challenges confronting the nation at a time of increasing political participation, industrial pre-eminence, urban growth, colonial expansion, religious controversy, and Irish tragedy. More generally, the volume modifies our understanding of 19th-century British party politics, the history of the Conservative party, and the nature of public life in the Victorian age, including other prominent figures such as Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, William Gladstone, and Benjamin Disraeli. Volume I takes the reader from Derby's early years through to the eve of his appointment as prime minister in the 1850s. Before this book, Derby was ‘the forgotten prime minister’, but this study fills this significant gap in the history of Victorian politics and society.

This book is an innovative interpretation of the history of Anglo–Irish relations from 1789 right to the present day. The French Revolution had an electrifying impact on Irish society, with the 1790s seeing the birth of modern Irish republicanism and Orangeism. This decade also saw the political integration between Ireland and the British elite, such as with Pitt and Castlereagh. The Irish, who were strongly influenced by Edmund Burke's freedom philosophies, argued that Britain's strategic interests were best served by a policy of Catholic emancipation. Britain's failure to achieve this objective — dramatised by the horrifying and tragic Irish famine of 1846–50 — set the context for the emergence of a popular mass nationalism. Eventually, the Fenian, Parnell, and Sinn Fein movements expelled the British from most of the island. This book reassesses all the key leaders of Irish nationalism, alongside key British political leaders — from Tone, Parnell and de Valera, to Haughey, Peel and Blair. It evaluates the changing ideological passions of the modern Irish question, while examining the changing economical and social worlds in London, Dublin and Belfast, all in one coherent analysis.