Excerpt from The British Nation: A History When Mr. Green published, nearly thirty years ago, his Short History of the English People, he gained final victory for due attention to social life as one of the most important phases of a nation's history. Since Mr. Green's time almost every aspect of British social development has been made the subject of special monographs. The six volumes on Social England, edited by the late Mr. Traill, embody these researches and represent the joint efforts of a large number of writers to give to the world the salient features of this side of national life. In another direction, too, has there been a marked development of historical inquiry. The point of view of the present-day historian must be entirely neutral, and this critical spirit has been accompanied by a special biographical interest that demands adequate information about prominent personages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.