Britain Since 1900 - A Success Story?

by Robert Skidelsky

The Vintage History of Britain is the most definitive and compelling history of the British Isles to date, offered by six distinguished historians.
     History, like the present, is always changing.

     Scholarship on the history of the British Isles is currently experiencing a golden age. The breakdown of modernism and the eclipse of both the Marxist tradition and the 'Whig interpretation' that sees all history as progress, combined with the trajectories of nationalism in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, have generated unprecedented intellectual activity.

     In the final volume of this history of Britian, Robert Skidelsky takes on the how successful was Britiain in the twentieth century. Taking in the loss of the British Empire, the 'ungovernable' 1970s, Britain's involvement in two world wars and unprecedented social change, this is a comprehensive and fascinating look at Britain's twentieth century.

Genres: Politics, History

472 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2014

About the author

Robert Skidelsky was a British economic historian, author, crossbench life peer in the House of Lords, and Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, including the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations.

Reviews

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skidelsky's "Britain Since 1900 - A Success Story?" is a superb analysis of contemporary British history, looking at the ups and downs throughout the twentieth century which have shaped our national psyche.

Focusing on the character, charisma and effectiveness of our leaders, both political and otherwise, the author makes strident judgements on the success of the country since the turn of the century; from David Lloyd George and the Liberal collapse, to Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee's wartime success, to Margaret Thatcher's unprecedented political success, to the Blair-Brown rivalry, the author's unique perspective is shown and backed up with statistical evidence.

Overall, a highly-recommended, albeit slightly one-sided, narrative which helps us to understand the factors and circumstances which impacted the decline of traditional British values of patriotism and empire, and the rise of the socially-modern, welfare-centred country we live in today.

[Michael Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty and precise, this book offers an overview of Britain's economic decline over the past century. Frustrated by poor governance, muddled strategy and the constant exaggeration of politicians' power to change human behaviour, Skidelsky chronicles the successive failure of British Prime Ministers to reverse the relative economic decline of the nation and overcome barriers to a more meritocratic society. Strangely underwhelmed by Blair and Thatcher, dismayed by the gap between Labour aspiration and delivery, ironic about Tory pretentions to help business and surprisingly warm about Lloyd George, Skidelsky portrays a nation struggling with economic decline and destined for isolation but still retaining illusions of moral leadership. essential reading for this week#s election winners