England in the Nineteenth Century

The theme of this book is the major social changes which the people of England experienced during the period of ‘the great peace’ between the Battle of Waterloo and the First World War. Political, economic, intellectual, diplomatic, and other “specialized” forms of history are drawn upon only in so far as they help to illuminate the changes in mental habit or outlook, or in social life and organization, which make up the story of the development of the English nation in that century.

The underlying motif is the remarkable accumulation of material wealth and power which the English people achieved, and this is the story of whence it derived, how it was used, and how it eventually diminished.

It was an age when the English exported everything. in abundance – men and ideas, as well as money and goods. At a time when production and exports are our major economic problem, it may be that we can find wisdom in the experience of Victorian England.