Nineteenth-Century Britain

by Jeremy Black, Donald M. MacRaild

This wide-ranging text provides a thematic account of British history centering on the eventful period of the 19th century. To the traditional, chronological account of historic happenings, the authors add a full range of thematic chapters examining political structures, ideologies, wars and international relations, economic and social history, religion, culture and ethnicity. Britain, as opposed to England, is the focus of the book. The coverage is enhanced with supplementary background information on key personalities and pivotal events, and numerous illustrations.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Research

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2002

About the author

Jeremy Black is an English historian, who was formerly a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).

Reviews

[Philip Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Dudes have done their homework. I had to read this super slowly because it was so dense. They assume a lot of the reader, and so at times its pretty inaccessible. Would have liked to have seen the book spend more time defining terms.

[Dave Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reviewing the book Nineteenth Century Britain by Jeremy Black et al which is a good book. This a rather confusing history of the period. Much of this book looks at the population growing exponentially at this time. This was at least in part due to the Industrial Revolution. It was largely due to Abraham Darby and his advances in iron and steel production. There was a whole wave of people leaving agriculture and other cottage industries and going into industry related to the use of coal and coke. There was a wave of factories built with things like manufacturers. The population as a result grew before plateauing out. This was largely due in part to advances in medicine. When people stopped dying off there didn't seem as much point in having large families. Contraception didn't come into play until the mid-twentieth century. Any civilized society tends to have initially growing population due in these cases to rapidly growing population due in these cases to rapidly growing advances in food production. Someone called Malthus came up with the theory of a growing population being tempered by advances in things like food production. He was wrong looking back at this. It is an interesting book nonetheless although mostly readable.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nineteenth century Britain packs a mean punch. At a slender 300+ pages it astutely documents the staggering amount of history in Britain during the nineteenth century. No stone goes unturned from economic, social, and politicall ideas to the intricate and all encompassing aspects of Britain during this time period. Black and Macdonald present this history in and orderly and accessible fashion that allows even novice readers to understand the complexities that occurried in Britain during the nineteenth century. At times the scope of information can be overwhelming, but I find it necessary in order to understand the complexities of history. It is an indispensable source for those studying the nineteenth century!

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

A plum good, high-ho deck of a book, rarest of the pedagogical plums, of this tut-tut, ta-ta period of jolly good British high-story! Get your Earl Grey on, boys, and sackfoot it down o'er the shuddering South Asian sauvages!

[EvaLovesYA · Rating 4 out of 5]

En rigtig god kilde ifb. med et semesterfag på engelskstudiet.

- Brugt på universitetet (engelsk)