The Edwardians / Roy Hattersley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hattersley, Roy.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Great Britain--History--Edward VII, 1901-1910.

Great Britain.

History.

Great Britain--Social life and customs--20th century.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

vi, 520 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2005.

Summary:

Edwardian Britain has often been described as a golden sunlit afternoon-personified by its genial and self-indulgent King. In fact, modern Britain was born during the reign of Edward VII, when politics, science, literature, and the arts were turned upside down.

In Parliament, the peers were crushed for the first time since Magna Carta. Irish nationalists and suffragettes took politics out onto the streets. Home Rule and Votes for Women were delayed, not precipitated, by the First World War.

Great parliamentary stars such as Lloyd George and Winston Churchill typified an era in which personalities dominated the headlines of the new tabloid newspapers. It was the age of Rolls and Royce, Scott and Shackleton, Edward Elgar, Shaw, the Pankhursts, and Mrs. Alice Keppel, whose social life was reported without mention of her relationship with the King.

The theater of ideas superseded drawing room dramas. Novelists of genius-from Henry James to D. H. Lawrence-produced a masterpiece each year. A London gallery caused a sensation with an exhibition of "Postimpressionists." Edward Elgar was the first English composer for two hundred years to stand comparison with the continental European masters. In sport, Victorian chivalry was replaced with unashamed professionalism.

Man flew for the first time and the motorcar became a common sight on city streets. Physicists examined the structure of the atom and philosophers disputed the traditional definition of virtue. The churches tried, without success, to confront and confound a new skepticism. Explorers sought to prove that men could live, and die, like gods.

Drawing on previously unpublished diaries and letters, Roy Hattersley's The Edwardians is a beguiling account of a turbulent and frequently misunderstood period. It is a full and often humorous portrait of an era that he elevates to its rightful place in British history.

Contents:

Introduction: Hope and Glory 1

Part 1 'Anxieties for England'

1 A Cloud Across the Sun 7

2 The Spirit of the Age 18

3 The Powers Behind the Throne 42

4 The Condition of England 64

Part 2 'Enough of this Tomfoolery'

5 Unfinished Business 85

6 A Preference for Empire 104

7 Uniting the Nation 127

8 Who Shall Rule? 150

Part 3 'The Force Majeure which Activates and Arms'

9 Ourselves Alone 175

10 Votes for Women! 197

11 United We Stand 222

12 Useful Members of the Community 243

Part 4 'Everybody Got Down off their Stilts'

13 Ideas Enter the Drawing Room 267

14 Literature Comes Home 291

15 The End of Innocence 315

16 Gerontius Awakes 338

Part 5 'Full of Energy and Purpose'

17 Would You Believe It? 363

18 Hardihood, Endurance and Courage 386

19 Halfpenny Dreadful 408

20 The Shape of Things to Come 431

Epilogue: The Summer Ends in August 460.

Notes:

Originally published: London : Little, Brown, 2004.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [501]-506) and index.

ISBN:

0312340125

OCLC:

57965854