Book description
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 WW I. Political, economic, intellectual, diplomatic and other ‘specialized’ kinds 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 the material wealth and power which the English people achieved, and the story of whence it derived, how it was used, and how it eventually diminished.
