The Rise and Fall of the British Nation

The Rise and Fall of the British Nation
Author: David Edgerton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
ISBN: 9781846147753

It is usual to see the United Kingdom as an island of continuity in an otherwise convulsed and unstable Europe; its political history a smooth sequence of administrations, a story of building a welfare state and coping with decline. But what if Britain's history was approached from a different angle? What if we wrote about it with as we might write the history of Germany, say, or the Soviet Union, as a story of power, and of transformation? David Edgerton's major new book breaks out of the confines of traditional British national history to reveal an unfamiliar place, subject to radical discontinuities. Out of a liberal, capitalist, genuinely global power of a unique kind, there arose from the 1940s a distinct British nation. This was committed to internal change, making it much more like the great continental powers. From the 1970s it became bound up both with the European Union and with foreign capital in new ways. Such a perspective produces new and refreshed understanding of everything from the nature of British politics to the performance of British industry. Packed with surprising examples and arguments, The Rise and Fall of the British Nationgives us a grown-up, unsentimental history, one which is crucial at a moment of serious reconsideration for the country and its future.

The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery

The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery
Author: Paul Kennedy
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2017-01-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0141983833

Paul Kennedy's classic naval history, now updated with a new introduction by the author This acclaimed book traces Britain's rise and fall as a sea power from the Tudors to the present day. Challenging the traditional view that the British are natural 'sons of the waves', he suggests instead that the country's fortunes as a significant maritime force have always been bound up with its economic growth. In doing so, he contributes significantly to the centuries-long debate between 'continental' and 'maritime' schools of strategy over Britain's policy in times of war. Setting British naval history within a framework of national, international, economic, political and strategic considerations, he offers a fresh approach to one of the central questions in British history. A new introduction extends his analysis into the twenty-first century and reflects on current American and Chinese ambitions for naval mastery. 'Excellent and stimulating' Correlli Barnett 'The first scholar to have set the sweep of British Naval history against the background of economic history' Michael Howard, Sunday Times 'By far the best study that has ever been done on the subject ... a sparkling and apt quotation on practically every page' Daniel A. Baugh, International History Review 'The best single-volume study of Britain and her naval past now available to us' Jon Sumida, Journal of Modern History

Britain's War Machine

Britain's War Machine
Author: David Edgerton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2011-09-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199911509

The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might. David Edgerton's bold, compelling new history shows the conflict in a new light, with Britain as a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests, and in command of a global production system. Rather than belittled by a Nazi behemoth, Britain arguably had the world's most advanced mechanized forces. It had not only a great empire, but allies large and small. Edgerton shows that Britain fought on many fronts and its many home fronts kept it exceptionally well supplied with weapons, food and oil, allowing it to mobilize to an extraordinary extent. It created and deployed a vast empire of machines, from the humble tramp steamer to the battleship, from the rifle to the tank, made in colossal factories the world over. Scientists and engineers invented new weapons, encouraged by a government and prime minister enthusiastic about the latest technologies. The British, indeed Churchillian, vision of war and modernity was challenged by repeated defeat at the hands of less well-equipped enemies. Yet the end result was a vindication of this vision. Like the United States, a powerful Britain won a cheap victory, while others paid a great price. Putting resources, machines and experts at the heart of a global rather than merely imperial story, Britain's War Machine demolishes timeworn myths about wartime Britain and gives us a groundbreaking and often unsettling picture of a great power in action.

The Rise and Fall of a Great Nation

The Rise and Fall of a Great Nation
Author: John Gondeck
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2012-08-23
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1466945729

Nations have risen to power through their might and driven by greed they have held many people in bondage. When the workforce was limited, they bought and sold slaves. Slavery is still taking place on the continent of Africa, and no one is there protesting. Politics! It is all about politics and the political game that is being played out in the greatest nation that the world has ever known could be its demise. We will examine the foundation that was laid by those who came from Great Britain and with only thirteen colonies became the ruler of the seas and skies with an army that is unmatched anywhere. Politics! Yes, politics played by men and women desiring power and wealth have brought us the very brink of collapse as they tend to forget who it was that gave so much to so few in the beginning. Thousands upon thousands have given their lives for the freedoms that we have in this land, and yet there are many who do not care, preferring a socialist form of government. But there is still hope for a failing nation.

Three Victories and a Defeat

Three Victories and a Defeat
Author: Brendan Simms
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 836
Release: 2008-12-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786727225

In the eighteenth century, Britain became a world superpower through a series of sensational military strikes. Traditionally, the Royal Navy has been seen as Britain's key weapon, but in Three Victories and a Defeat Brendan Simms argues that Britain's true strength lay with the German aristocrats who ruled it at the time. The House of Hanover superbly managed a complex series of European alliances that enabled Britain to keep the continental balance of power in check while dramatically expanding her own empire. These alliances sustained the nation through the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, and the Seven Years' War. But in 1776, Britain lost the American continent by alienating her European allies. An extraordinary reinterpretation of British and American history, Three Victories and a Defeat is a masterwork by a rising star of the historical profession.

Good-bye, Great Britain

Good-bye, Great Britain
Author: Kathleen Burk
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0300057288

In this authoritative and gripping book--the first full account of the 1976 International Monetary Fund crisis--Kathleen Burk and Alec Cairncross peel back the surface of the most searing economic crisis of postwar Britain to reveal its historical roots and contemporary context. During the spring of 1976, the plummeting value of the British pound against the U.S. dollar triggered a traumatic economic and political crisis. International confidence in the pound collapsed; an article in the Wall Street Journal, headlined "Good-bye, Great Britain," urged investors to get out of sterling. Refused aid by the London and New York markets, the Labour Government under Prime Minister James Callaghan was forced to turn for help to the IMF--a highly unusual move for a developed Western economy. Fearing that the economic crisis would drive Britain into a left-wing siege economy which would endanger NATO and the EEC, the United States and Germany used the IMF loan as a means to force Britain to make major domestic policy changes; when the IMF mission arrived in London in November 1976, it was announced that the price for the loan included deep cuts in domestic spending. Burk and Cairncross uncover the maneuvers of the Labour Government to evade IMF conditions. They also examine underlying economic factors, the political agenda, the rise of monetarist ideas, and the Keynesian response. Juxtaposing narrative with analysis, they provide surprising answers to critical questions and reveal how the breakdown of the post-war consensus on the macroeconomic management paved the way for the triumph of Thatcherism.

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
Author: Lawrence James
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 978
Release: 1997-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 146684213X

“A stylish, intelligent and readable book.” —The New York Times Book Review Birthed as a maritime superpower, the ruler of half the globe, Britain today finds itself in a precarious position, often stirring conflict within its European kin. This book provides a nuanced reflection of Britain's tumultuous transition from a globally dominant empire to an economically fragile island. In The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James has written a comprehensive, perceptive, and insightful history of the British Empire. Spanning the years from 1600 to the present day, this critically acclaimed book combines detailed scholarship with readable popular history.

Bloody Nasty People

Bloody Nasty People
Author: Daniel Trilling
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2012-10-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1844679608

The past decade in the UK saw the rise of the British National Party, the country’s most successful ever far-right political movement, and the emergence of the anti-Islamic English Defence League. Taking aim at asylum seekers, Muslims, ‘enforced multiculturalism’ and benefit ‘scroungers’, these groups have been working overtime to shift the blame for the nation’s ills onto the shoulders of the vulnerable. What does this extremist resurgence say about the state of modern Britain? Drawing on archival research and extensive interviews with key figures, such as BNP leader Nick Griffin, Daniel Trilling shows how previously marginal characters from a tiny neo-Nazi subculture successfully exploited tensions exacerbated by the fear of immigration, the War on Terror and steepening economic inequality. Mainstream politicians have consistently underestimated the far right in Britain while pursuing policies that give it the space to grow. Bloody Nasty People calls time on this complacency in an account that provides us with fresh insights into the dynamics of political extremism.

Free Trade Nation

Free Trade Nation
Author: Frank Trentmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199209200

This is the story of free trade in 19th century Britain, its contribution to the development of Britain's democratic culture, and the unravelling of the free trade movement in the wake of the First World War.

The British Empire and Commonwealth

The British Empire and Commonwealth
Author: Martin Kitchen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 205
Release: 1996-08-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1349248304

From its modest to its recent disappearance, the British Empire was an extraordinary and paradoxical entity. North America, Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Australasia and innumerable small islands and territories have been fundamentally shaped - economically, socially and politically - by a nation whose imperial drive came from a bewildering mixture of rapacity and moral zeal, of high-mindedness and viciousness, of strategic cunning and feckless neglect. Martin Kitchen has written a fascinating, crisp, informative account of the rise and fall of the British Empire, concentrating on the 19th and 20th centuries but giving the background of the 'First British Empire', which was lost with the creating of the United States of America. His book is of particular value in relating the importance of the Empire to Britain's success as the only genuinely world power in the Victorian era and to Britain's ability to win the two great wars of the 20th century.