History in Our Time - Softcover

Cannadine, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140249559 ISBN 13: 9780140249552

Publisher: Penguin, 2000

Synopsis

In this collection of essays on nineteenth and twentieth century Britain, the pre-eminent historian David Cannadine explores subjects as varied as suicide and divorce, patriotism and empire, class and privacy - the ways in which contemporary eventshave helped to shape and change our perspectives on the past and the dialogue between the past and the present.

About this title

Synopsis:

How did the House of Windsor transform itself into " a wealth-creating machine" which has built up a huge private fortune from public funds? how did the (apparently) happy "family on the throne" turn dysfunctional, and a glitzy royal marriage degenerate into the ghastly "spectacle of two sad, spoiled, solipsistic individuals slugging it out in public? In this collection, the author offers dazzling brief overviews of topics ranging from class to divorce, private to patriotism, the rise and fall of Empire and the absurd cult of "Victorian values". He dissects the continuing crises of the monarchy and he reveals how even the most exceptional figures - Churchill and Nightingale, Mosley and Macmillan, Thatcher and A.J.P. Taylor - can only be understood in their full historical context. Few other writers have his skill at bringing the past to life and using it to illuminate the present.

About the Author:

David Cannadine is professor of history and director of the Institute of Historical Research at London University. He is the author of several books including THE PLEASURES OF THE PAST, THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH ARISTOCRACY and CLASS IN BRITAIN.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0140249559
• ISBN 13: 9780140249552
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336