The Age of Decadence: Britain 1880 to 1914

by Simon Heffer

‘A riveting account of the pre-First World War years . . . The Age of Decadence is an enormously impressive and enjoyable read.’ Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

‘A magnificent account of a less than magnificent epoch.’ Jonathan Meades, Literary Review

The folk-memory of Britain in the years before the Great War is of a powerful, contented, orderly and thriving country. She commanded a vast empire. She bestrode international commerce. Her citizens were living longer, profiting from civil liberties their grandparents only dreamt of, and enjoying an expanding range of comforts and pastimes. The mood of pride and self-confidence is familiar from Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches, newsreels of George V’s coronation and the London’s great Edwardian palaces.

Yet things were very different below the surface. In The Age of Decadence Simon Heffer exposes the contradictions of late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain. He explains how, despite the nation’s massive power, a mismanaged war against the Boers in South Africa created profound doubts about her imperial destiny. He shows how attempts to secure vital social reforms prompted the twentieth century’s gravest constitutional crisis and coincided with the worst industrial unrest in British history. He describes how politicians who conceded the vote to millions more men disregarded women so utterly that female suffragists’ public protest bordered on terrorism. He depicts a ruling class that fell prey to degeneracy and scandal. He analyses a national psyche that embraced the motor-car, the sensationalist press and the science fiction of H. G. Wells, but also the Arts and Crafts of William Morris and the nostalgia of A. E. Housman. And he concludes with the crisis that in the summer of 1914 threatened the existence of the United Kingdom – a looming civil war in Ireland.

He lights up the era through vivid pen-portraits of the great men and women of the day – including Gladstone, Parnell, Asquith and Churchill, but also Mrs Pankhurst, Beatrice Webb, Baden-Powell, Wilde and Shaw – creating a richly detailed panorama of a great power that, through both accident and arrogance, was forced to face potentially fatal challenges.


‘A devastating critique of prewar Britain . . . disturbingly relevant to the world in which we live.’ Gerard DeGroot, The Times

‘You won’t put it down . . . A really riveting read.’ Rana Mitter, BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Victorian, Edwardian, Politics, 19th Century

912 pages, Hardcover

First published September 21, 2017

About the author

Simon James Heffer is an English historian, journalist, author and political commentator.

Reviews

[Geevee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon Heffer has written a sweeping and hugely enjoyable book about an era that is often described and suggested as content, peaceful and disciplined, but in actuality was one of political foment and social change.

The structure of the book is at a top level chronological but split into four parts: The World of the Late Victorians; Coming Storms; Public Debates, Public Doubts and Strife. The prologue, Swagger, starts the book off with a encapsulation of what it meant to be British and how the Empire celebrated Queen Victoria's Diamond and Golden jubilees. There is also signposting of subjects, people and events that lie deeper within the book.

Once into Part I, the heavyweights of the 1880s, Gladstone, Salisbury, Joseph Chamberlain, John Bright and even Lord Alfred Tennyson feature in the opening chapter. Mr Heffer discusses franchise for rural men and boundary changes as we see Conservatives, Liberals and the radical faction of the Liberals all fence and press for legislation. Gladstone is elderly, but certainly no pushover or easy ride for Joseph the radical either.

Pushing along at a pace, but with verve and clarity, Mr Heffer covers taxation, and farming: struggling with falling prices and tenant farmers are unable to compete with cheap imports of grain, meats and even refrigerated goods by ship. Elsewhere the scandal of affairs and homosexuality sees the Royals dragged by implication (former) and association (latter) into divorce and immorality case. There is welcome detail about education, sport, music for the lower classes and much more. Industrial unrest - an ever present in British history, especially from the 1820s to 1980s, the birth of the Labour party and pensions and early welfare are covered in the Workers Struggle, the final chapter in Part 1.

Wider afield as we move in to Part II (Coming Storms) imperial tensions are highlighted by the Government's abandonment of, and leading to the death of, General Gordon brought Gladstone Queen Victoria and the public's ire, and stained his record (not that it mattered with Victoria who detested him). The procedures and traditions of Parliament looms large as Charles Bradlaugh, elected MP for Northampton in 1880, refuses to take the religious Oath of Allegiance. He challenges tradition by stating he will attest to an oath but not a religious one. This is denied and ructions, ejections and much consternation follows. However, Bradlaugh, with the support of his constituency, who elected him 4 times, successfully sees Parliament change its rules in 1880.

An ever-present in this book is the Victorians', willingness to improve people. Abroad linked to trade and education and empire's expansion, and at home, especially Mr Heffer covers in great detail poverty, crime, mortality, employment and the difficulties unemployment, illness and sickness created. There are many Acts of Parliament to improve conditions as we see the changes in society and transport that lead to better education, literacy, and the creation of the Suburbs.

Improving health as a theme is maintained and we see the formation of county councils, further education acts & milder discipline in schools by Salisbury's Tory Govt (c1890). Also discussed is Borstal & how central & local government took a wider role in welfare. Protecting women and Infanticide are covered: Amelia Dyer, who is believed to have killed 400 babies is one case. Child prostitution, domestic white slavery (a late Victorian term I was surprised to learn), eugenics feature, as does H.G Wells' views of the future...and an over strong Germany focuses minds on foreign policy, capital expenditure, taxation and military capability.

Arts, literature, newspapers also have significant coverage with their ownership & adaptation to events & society, including the impact of near full literacy. Press barons such as Northcliffe and his influence on and with newspapers shows how messaging and political views are promulgated. Allied to this are libel and censorship with cases brought and won or lost. This latter, especially the censorship of the theatre is eye-opening and quite amusing where we see the laughable method, approach & absence of knowledge of the Censor, G A Redford in action. I was surprised the British Board of Film Classification started in 1912. Its primary aim being H&S as the film and limelight was so hazardous.

Women's suffrage and "Votes for Women" are ably covered as we span the books time period and meet some of the main characters and points in time. The violence and growth in attacks on property and indeed people grew causing real societal concern. There is a lot of detail here that for was new, and I have read on this subject. Likewise, the sheer amount of industrial unrest, and violence, as miners, transport workers, dockers, tram, shipping and waterways workers all strike, as do factories - many locked out in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, as riots and protests seek better conditions and pay. Starvation breaks many strikes but slowly conditions improve and change including the first steps towards a welfare state that was created in 1947. Pensions and unemployment insurance are born, and interesting to learn this is where Beveridge, the central lead for the 1947 creation served his apprenticeship. The rise of unions and Labour also span this period too.

Ireland is ever-present in the book. A whole chapter in dedicated to it in Part 2, Coming Storms, and again later as Home Rule, industrial strife, political disagreements and manoeuvring continues. Arming the population (both sides), the question of Ulster and its counties is central as we approach the key debates and events on 1912 to 1914 with the Home Rule act...but then in July a assassination creates a shockwave that will see men from Ulster and their adversaries from the rest of Ireland join up and spill huge amounts of blood in Britain's name.

There is too much in this book to cover everything here. That said this review I hope gives a flavour of the spread, detail and sheer pleasure this book has given me. Mr Heffer has been able to show in clear entertaining prose how the Age of Decadence happened.

Decadence: 1. Moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury. 1.1 Luxurious self-indulgence. . Source: OED.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Age of Decadence – Excellently researched and Beautifully written

Simon Heffer, journalist and historian reminds us of world that Britain has long looked at with various degrees of rose tinted spectacles. One would expect, a right-wing journalist such as Heffer would offer up a polemic on lost Victorian values and a world where everyone knew their place. Rather we are given an excellently researched, and a beautifully written, balanced account of a changing world.

The prose that Heffer uses paints some spectacular pictures for the imagination, and in the prologue in describing Victoria’s jubilee service outside of St Paul’s is an outstanding case of this. When describing the Queen and the copes of the bishops, there is a postcard on St Paul’s website, which is the pictorial version of the picture Heffer paints.

Simon Heffer rises to the challenge of a Britain of a social structure that was rotten to the core, where there was a massive gulf between the rich and everyone else. Between 1880 and 1914, how the few squandered the wealth that previous generations built up, when 10% of the population owned over 90% of the country’s wealth.

Heffer guides the reader effortlessly through the beginning of William Gladstone’s beginning of his second administration to the summer of 1914, where in Ireland was on the brink of civil war over Home Rule. Heffer shows that Britain may have had the greatest empire the world had ever seen, the splendour of home, was nothing more an illusion. There was social unrest, people’s voices from below, were getting louder and challenging the status quo.

Where the prologue shows the pomp and circumstance that Britain is so good at that the following chapters are a juxtaposition of that. Showing the challenges, that Britain was facing with Ireland, poverty and Votes for Women, to the rise of the Labour Party and growing union militancy, not forgetting the challenge to trade tariffs.

Heffer ably describes the challenges to the aristocracy and how the 1911 Parliament Act may be seen as the beginning of their decline in public life. How with the double standards and sex scandals that were prevalent but hidden away from the ‘other classes’. Not forgetting that there was a homosexual brothel on Cleveland Street that operated with the full cooperation of the ruling class in 1889. The sexual proclivities of the rich and the double standards when condemning the poor for similar.

This book is packed with so much detail, shows the extent of the scholarship and research and over the 800 pages you cannot help but learn something new. Simon Heffer has not left a stone unturned, and has discovered items in archives that help to illustrate this period, and make the book an excellent read.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Age of Decadence by Simon Heffer is the definitive nonfiction that delves deeply into every aspect of Britain’s history from 1880-1914. This gem covers everything anyone would ever want to know about the late-Victorian and Edwardian eras of Great Britain that occurred before WWI ushered in so many changes and created a new path and era for GB.

This book is just stunning. The amount of research that was needed to create this masterpiece is just beyond impressive. The author covers every aspect: politics, history, culture, art, society, instabilities, who’s who of importance amongst many other avenues. My personal favorite is the chapter regarding Women’s Suffrage. I have already researched a great deal on this subject, and I felt the author did an excellent job summing up the facts.

This exhaustingly researched book is a true work of art that demands ones’s attention and is most enjoyed as a slow, steady read so that all the wonderful facts that are presented can truly be absorbed and appreciated.

Very impressive. For anyone interested in history, pre-WWI history, and the history of Britain.

5/5 stars

Thank you EW and Pegasus Books for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR, Instagram, and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 4/6/21.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an immersive narrative history of the major events in British domestic history in the quarter century before the start of the First World War. It is unsparing in its detail and I applaud Simon Heffer's mastery of the information and his ability to describe the events so clearly. For a thorough narrative of events such as Irish home rule, the fight for female suffrage, "the Great Unrest" (the major labour conflicts of 1911, 1912 etc.), this would be an excellent source.

I have only two points of negative criticism such as to stop me giving this 5 stars. First, there is at times so much detail that I did get a bit bogged down (the chapter about Bradlaugh and the oath being a particular example) and so perhaps some tightening of the narrative would have been helpful.

The second point is that although Simon Heffer seeks to link these various events as a way of illustrating Britain becoming a decadent nation (a sort of reserve Whiggism), this was not justified when describing each of the set-piece events. Britain was undergoing major social change at the time but to characterise events as of all of piece with decadence, was not argued through in the book. In fact, unusually for this author, the book was light on analysis for much of its 800 plus pages.

That said, it is a most readable and informative account and while not as impressive as the previous volume (High Minds), is well worth tackling and readers will find this a rewarding experience.

[Alistair · Rating 4 out of 5]

At nearly 900 pages including index , notes and bibliography this is a real door stop of a book and took me ages to read . I can't imagine how the writer managed to martial all the strands that he deals with such as the decline of Victorian certainties , the change in a woman's role particularly the fight for the vote , the rise of worker's unions , Ireland which I don't understand , the death of God , education for all , the development of a middle class , Empire etc . .

The title is deceptive . Obviously in trying to question the popular belief that the Edwardian era was all about sunlit garden parties and the grandeur of Empire , Simon Heffer or his publisher picked a title that suggests terrible moral turpitude . What in fact it means is that all was not plain sailing and it was a time of change and struggle .

I enjoyed plowing through it with the reservation that there is too much detail about parliamentary in fighting and various bills such as those relating to Free Trade , Death Duties and the right to strike which were obviously important at the time but left me totally confused . I had no idea who was who amongst the Asquiths , Churchills and Lloyd Georges and other sundry politicians . I preferred the chapters on nostalgia , Empire and the Rise of the Pooters .

Very good but not for the fainthearted .

[Andrew Morin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long book for a survey of 34 years in one country (or two). I generally enjoyed it, with reservations.


A few complaints:

-Much of the excess length in my mind comes from much too detailed individual stories, which I suppose is fine for its purpose but can be too much. I was not that interested in the personal lives of H.G. Wells or Lloyd George. This is less aggravating to me when it comes to the particularly detailed portraits of actual events, but even that seems to produce uneven coverage in what is otherwise a very wide survey.

-The chronology gets confusing at times, as the generally thematic chapters involve veering back and forth across ministries. It's not terrible (it is only 34 years) but the fall of the last Gladstone ministry happens like 4 times. Many of the political causes of such transitions are covered eventually, but not before several chapters have detailed major currents of the succeeding ministry. It also requires a lot of background to follow.

- I think it's fine to have a domestic (including Ireland, less so Scotland or Wales) rather than foreign or Imperial focus, since it is titled a history of Britain and not the Empire, but a cursory overview of external events could've been helpful. South Africa and Sudan get their necessary mentions, and India earns a dozen pages (insufficient), but there's really nothing on Canada, Australia, East Africa, South East Asia beyond a cursory mention of debates over imperialism. Adjacently, the Entente Cordiale is mentioned a few times, as is the specter of Russian autocracy, but none of these developments in Europe (nor any foreign relations) are detailed besides the fears of German invasion and growing industrial inferiority.

And good things:
-I think the portrait overall of Britain is nicely done and pretty balanced across social groups, Britain and Ireland, etc. The first section and later explanations of economic development, literacy, labor, construct a pretty fast moving but comprehensive picture of Britain

-The last section wraps things up very nicely and does a lot to dispel the "towering misconception" of a calm before the storm in Edwardian Britain. Very good narrative conclusion to the problems introduced in the earlier chapters (labor, suffrage, Ireland)

-The final narrative twist of the onset of War is excellent, if underdeveloped.

Overall I liked it! Stronger than the other British surveys I've read at the time, though mostly because of its length and focus.

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this and I did learn a lot, but oh my, there's just so much of it.

[Bevan Lewis]

Reviewed in the New Statesman http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/b...

[JW · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book may remind some of George Dangerfield’s The Strange Death of Liberal England. Both cover similar territory, but Heffer’s book is much more extensive. The last section covers the well-known territory of Lords versus Liberals, suffragettes and strikers, with intransigent Ulster providing the finale. Before then, the author shows the beginnings of the welfare state. The working and results of expanded education and increased literacy are well covered, as is the increase in women’s rights. Britain was becoming more democratic, which either meant the people were having more say in their government, or the governing class had to use better means of manipulating the public (cue Lord Northcliffe and the other press barons).
Many were troubled by the country’s initial poor results in the Boer War and the relatively large number of recruits found unfit for service. Nostalgia was in the air, but was the country really decadent? If swagger really was a spirit of the age, wouldn’t the people of that time felt it to be justified? We now know the empire was on the edge of a precipice (along with the rest of Europe), but what if Franz Ferdinand’s driver had not made that wrong turn in Sarajevo?

[mylogicisfuzzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took almost four months to read although I did put it aside for a while back in April and May. For the most part, it is very good, immaculately researched and well argued. However, it is also too long at times with enough detail about parliamentary debates, conversations and correspondence between certain politicians for a book of its own within this book. And because of its thematic approach, I did occasionally get confused between Churchills and Chamberlains Sr and Jr (in the first chapter on Home Rule, Churchill Sr for example and in the later Home Rule chapter Churchill Jr and same with tariffs/ protectionism between Chamberlain father and son). I didn't really want to read about parliamentary debates in such detail, nevertheless it was still interesting. Parts 2 and 3 I found particularly good and I've learned a few things overall. For example, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at HG Wells in the same light again since learning about his pretty shocking attitude towards women.

[Alan Goswell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't tackle this marathon unless you are a real enthusiast. This is not for those who like any pace in a book. The author examines each of the subject matters in forensic detail and then some more. I completed it because I did not want to be beaten, but would never read this author again.

[victor harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Might serve well as a reference work, as a narrative, very tedious.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable account of pre-Great War Britain. The publisher's blurb would seem to want us to believe that we have had an incorrect view of Britain over those years, seeing the Empire in its best light when there was thorough rot within that soon came bubbling to the surface. I really did not see it that way, although there certainly were countervailing forces playing against one another throughout that society. One might even call it the inevitable outcome of progressivism, but that would be overly simple. In an age when communications was improving rapidly one would, I think, expect that the ups and downs being experienced throughout the Empire and which could be quickly reported in the press of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York, the world would surely be seen as rocketing toward some new high, or low, on an almost daily basis. Some of those things would likely appear decadent, but others would surely look quite positive - whose memory ought we recall.

The book is quite wide-ranging in subject areas, and while it does not cover all of them exhaustively, it makes a major contribution to a good understanding of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, concluding just prior to the breakout of The Great War. I deem it a worthwhile work to take in.

[Milo · Rating 3 out of 5]

To seek Heffer’s overriding argument is possibly missing the point. Much though the book does take a declentionist view of ‘decadence’ – a word that can mean indolence, or hedonism, or overpride – it seems rather a fluid joining material than it does a thesis. Heffer’s main intention is to provide a gloss of the age: decadence becomes a word that can fit it, much as I assume his previous book centres on ‘industrial’ or some such term. Here are the Edwardians, in their doomed poise. A narrative of years, an attempt to gather the whole of a political age into one half-century text. Though it is somewhat revealing that Heffer takes this period as one of fundamental decline. In material terms he is not imprecise: it is not, Heffer suggests, the Great War that ended the Empire, but rather the Great War that sped it to its predetermined end. A shift in social, economic conditions that necessarily undermined the imperial concept. The British Empire, as it existed, could not go on. The very substance of politics had been shaken, the disposition of society rearranged. But is this decline? Heffer takes as his final chapter an obvious and suiting drama: the near-war of Ireland before Sarajevo. Here the Edwardian sunset very nearly exploded, quite beyond the range of German guns. Chronologically, this is the place to end; thematically, it cuts a shadow. Violence awaits, calamity awaits. All true. But consider where the emphasis might have been put. Not on Irish calamity, or imperial decline, or Liberal defeat: but on the destruction of the Lords. For so much as this ‘age of decadence’ represents a change in British fortunes upon the world stage, it also represents a triumph of the British people against their masters. The cracking of the House of Lords becomes the finale in a decades-long retreat. Property cut up by death duties; influence revoked by reform acts; propriety defeated by the mass dissemination of information. In 1880 one could conceive a prime minister in the Lords; a nation still subject to the whims of aristocracy. By 1914 it seemed – Arch Duke dead – that such ideas had met their lasting end. So too had life for the British subject improved: trades unions had improved their lot at work; interventionalist government policy had secured certain rights in domicile and healthcare; the Labour and Women’s movements had come into full fledge. Heffer, whose (Liberal-)conservatism leaks through his text – it is an old-fashioned History – seems willing to celebrate these many advances in a text bent toward End-Times. Perhaps he shares some sense of the Edwardian nostalgia. It is an impulse I understand. The formation of the text is more generally pleasing: faced with an overabundance of simultaneous action, Heffer divides his work into several coterminous sections. There is some loss of scope in this approach - insofar as it can become difficult to line up the many parallel events and therefore shape the terminal mass of these overlapping politics (perhaps a lapping timeline could be supplemented for this purpose) – but it is a loss sanctioned by the clarity gained in lieu. Heffer’s capacity to rifle through very complex, often circuitous parliamentary archives and to wring from these so many micro-dramas is his talent as a historian; it is a mass of information, delivered straightforwardly. That Heffer’s biases infest the piece is a given, though one I enjoy. His determined defence of Winston Churchill, whenever the man commits another indiscretion; his total excoriation of the late Queen Vic; his deference to Gladstone and the Liberals; his suspicion of socialism and the Labour movement. His book is never so argumentative as to make these biases more than window dressing; I think any good history does well with window dressing of this kind. His attempts to report the entirety of the Edwardian experience do, sometimes, come unstuck. I find Heffer’s artistic insights to often hit upon walls of limitation (he finds in Elgar only the patriotic composer, somehow missing the intensely personal, often reticent character of his music completely), and his arrangement of information does – in one enormous slip – threaten the composition of the work. In his chapter on the suffragist movement, which is a compelling, even moving report of the women’s movement, Heffer draws reference to HG Wells’ Ann Veronica. An appropriate cultural touchstone of that moment in time. But he makes this a segue to discuss Wells’ long-implied philandry, amounting to a dissertation on his foul conduct with women – Heffer’s opposition to adultery remarks his nationality. The essay itself is of a piece with the rest of the book – that is to say, informative and lively – but to put this account of one man’s infidelity and sexism in the middle of the suffragette narrative is bizarre. As soon as it ends, the narrative is picked up where it left off – it is as though Heffer had written this disposition on the Wells situation separately and thought where best to slot it. Suffragist – Veronica – Wells – and back is a fine aetiology, in concept, but bewildering in process. Better he had shifted all this material in with the Fabian drama. It is, itself, proof that ‘everything’ cannot be the leading dictum in the writing of history. But I should say it is an uncommon slip in what remains a neatly organized work of such enormous scale. Conventional, and sometimes to its defect, but the motherlode of information for its period. A grand survey in the old style.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taken me three years to read this book, dipping in and out. Not an easy bed time read due to size of the book! Written really well and very readable even if your not into non fiction. Plenty of detail that highlights how the modern world was formed. Enjoyable but might have worked better as 2 volumes.

[Studvet · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely well - done book that gives great insight and detail of those times: not the "good old days" at all. It is shocking to see how workers, women and different ethnicities were treated little better than animals. Times have so changed! It's a bit dry and repetitive at times, thru no fault of the author, but has great authority and command of facts and of the attitudes of the time as the story is told. Some great stories but surely one of the greatest figures of all time is Emmeline Pankhurst for the wonderful struggle she and her family, and others, did against a powerful, repressive government and a totally male - dominated society. Women have so much to thank her for, as do society in general, and she and her fellow fighters struggles are Olympian in their courage and sacrifices. She is up there with the Churchill of the war years.

[Stephen King · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fascinating but far too long. There are great chapters on the suffragette movement, on the rise of the trade unions and some intriguing insights into the ways in which a deferential Victorian society gave way to the more liberal Edwardian and post war age. It’s marred however by long tedious accounts of parliamentary battles on Home Rule and the wider suffrage movement. As a social history, purely, it would have been great.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got bogged down, could only finish 600 pages.

[Jerry Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a lover of history, as there is always so much to learn and the tentacles of history spread across the years and the centuries to resonate today. This is an era of British history with which I am/was not particularly familiar. Mark you, there is a lot of history in these islands so there is a lot to learn of course. I must confess that this was somewhat tough reading - over 800 pages of fairly dense text covering many facets of the era between the two dates in the title. It took me a lot of time to consume and, as one would expect, there were some matters of considerably more interest to me that others.

The overall tenet of the narrative, basically summed up in the very final sentence, is that this was the age where Britain's influence and control over much of the World began to wane. Even though the Empire would last for a while yet, the seeds of it's unravelling are sown here, or perhaps even started to germinate here. The argument is pretty well made I think, as there is a general feeling of decay and incompetence that starts to make itself felt here. Now, as a Brit, I abhor the Empire and the pernicious influence my country of birth had on the World (East India Company, destruction of indigenous people and industries in furtherance of "the mother country", racism, genocide, suppression etc.) whose impacts last to this day. I am not persuaded that this catalogue of oppression is alleviated by the argument that India has a good railway system and civil service because of us. That is a fatuous assertion in my view.

I am aware that there is a yearning for British influence today as the UK lurches from crisis to crisis, the first country to effectively put economic sanctions on itself, racist, xenophobic, angry and increasingly irrelevant but I still have no desire for the trappings of Empire as a means of pumping up British egos as to how important we are. But I digress. There is little doubt that the UK had profound changes and shocks to the system at this time. The death of Victoria, Irish home rule, Votes for Women, overseas "challenges", political machinations, rise of organized labour, civil unrest, decline of the Liberal Party, founding of the Labour Party etc. The era was obviously terminated by WWI which, of course, changed the whole trajectory of the World.

I enjoyed this book and Heffer is a very accomplished historian and writer and the book is certainly well researched. I am very glad I read it although I confess that the cast of characters, especially in regards to the Irish question, was somewhat hard to follow at times but this is hardly the fault of the author. It took me a long time to work through this, although I am not a fast reader in general so these books are always a challenge for me. It was a less easier read than the more recent histories penned by Dominic Sandbrooke, whose approach I find a bit more approachable but that is not to knock or criticize the extensive detail covered here. If you have any interest in British history, and the impact still felt by the pivotal events of this time, this is a great book to pick up. Just be prepared for a lengthy read!

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, providing a history of Britain in the 35 years prior to World War I. The author, English historian Simon Huffer, paints a vivid picture of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. All aspects of life in Britain from 1880 through to 1914 are covered: political, social, and cultural. This includes the growing presence of an Imperial mindset, the steady blending of society, the slow demise of commercial and financial strength, and the rapid changes brought by technology. All the major figures of this era cross the stage: Gladstone, Salisbury, Chamberlain, Asquith, both Churchills, and the list goes on. My favorite part of the book is it’s handling of the Irish question, Home Rule. Huffer provides very detailed accounts of the political back-and-forth, laying out the elements of the various Irish independence movements and the resultant backlash. He also does a good job linking those events to the post-WWI history, up to the present. This provides a rationale (if it is needed) for the 20th century’s Hibernian conflicts. A great book for anyone wanting to understand the state of Great Britain at the start of WWI. Highly recommended for those interested in Britain’s political history.

[Dropbear123 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 being harsh but rounding down for Goodreads.

Very long (830 pages) in-depth overview of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Covers pretty much every topic.

One thing I didn't like is the repeated trend of really focusing on one topic, normally a scandal or court case and giving the blow by blow details of it. These are things like Cleveland Street gay brothel scandal involving an aristocrat, the Marconi corruption scandal or HG Well's love life. As smaller anecdotes they might have worked better but they are more like massive tangents that I was just wanting over.

Heffer's portrayal of the period, especially 1910-1914 is of Britain on the brink of anarchy. Strikes and trade union unrest bordering on revolution, increasingly terroristic suffragettes, and Ireland on the verge of civil war over home rule with the military probably refusing to follow orders to enforce home rule if it came to it. Specifically mentioning this because I recently read another massive Edwardian book - The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain by Vernon Bogdanor takes the exact opposite point of view. (For comparison I enjoyed Heffer more on the trade unions and class unrest, Bogdanor more on women's suffrage and Ireland, although I'm not sure who I agree with more overall)

[Stuart Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who tends to believe that late 19th/early 20th century Britain was a time of prosperity and tranquility will certainly be confounded by this insightful examination of the realities--extreme labor unrest; ineptitude of all political parties; a constitutional crisis; militant suffragette actions; the implacable issue of Irish home rule--along with accompanying social, religious and cultural upheavals. However, the author also makes a point of discussing various reforms that advanced literacy, health, workplace protections, etc., during this period to produce a fascinating portrait of the enormous changes ushered in by the Industrial Revolution, ending his narrative just before the culminating catastrophe of World War I. Anyone interested in English history will want to read this--although be warned: discussion of Parliamentary/political machinations is often quite detailed and these can border on the tedious (at least to this reader), especially when it's a bit uncertain of just what "Liberal", "Tory", "Conservative" or "Unionist" actually mean at certain points in time.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Painted with a tiny brush over a wide swathe of British history, this volume ranges from 1880 to the outbreak of the First World War … it covers various topics: politics, Home Rule for Ireland, votes for women, labor issues, literary matters, etc. Several players emerge from the shadows: Churchill, Lloyd George, Asquith, Edward VII, George V, Beatrice Webb, Emmeline Pankhurst, and a host of others … relying in part on Dangerfield’s “The Strange Death of Liberal England,” it lists an impressive Bibliography at its conclusion … comprehensive and well-written …

by George Dangerfield (no photo)

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of what I managed to read are quite illuminating. On the other hand, this book is dense with parliamentary details--too many details, including a vast array of people unfamiliar to this reader (a chart or appendix of these persons would have been appreciated). Certainly, the author makes clear that this 30 year period marked the decline of British hegemony, in particular, the disaster of the two Boer Wars which revealed the many problems at the heart of society and which shook British condidence ("swagger") in its self-conception of Empire. It was also a time of profound social and technological change, which elements of British society fought against, notably the extension of the vote as well as the growing power of labor unions. Then there was Ireland. A total mess that Britain was unable to deal with effectively.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly interesting history of Britian in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book covers many different aspects of life in late Victorian and Edwardian Britian, including education, politics, Irish Home Rule, the fight for votes for women and many others.

It also touches upon the cultural impact of the era in terms of the development of music, literature and art. Exploration and the development of empire are also covered widely.

Heffer has a masterly touch with words and in places it felt as if I were reading a novel rather than a non fiction book. I throughly enjoyed this book, and would read it again in the future.

[Ann Otto · Rating 2 out of 5]

The late Victorian and Early Edwardian period prior to WWI is very interesting. I expected to like this book by a well-published author but found that it is actually written for more academic or British audiences. It is the first of Heffer's many works to be published in America. The book is over 800 pages with a very detailed history of British culture and the politics of the era. The chapters are by topic, not chronological, which leads to confusion and redundancy. Again, academics or Anglophiles will appreciate this history. Full disclosure, I only made it halfway through.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished, this one of the most detailed history books I've read covering every aspect of British life during that period. Really interesting and engaging.

I found the sections on politics hard going, complicated with too much detail (the detail I loved in every other section). A list of political personages and their affiliations would have been useful as it got quite boring and I just lost the thread.

[Robert Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decay of an Empire

A competent scholarly treatise detailing the cause and effect of the burgeoning cultural strengths of the working class and the opposing waning power of the hithertofore ruling classes. The advent of the suffragette, the coming of age of the unions, the birth of the Labour party and virtual demise of the Liberals together with the implementation of pensions and sickness benefits for the nation are dissected and explained in eminently readable prose.

[Simon Barr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never give 5 stars. Superbly narrated with great detail of the characters and events of the time. The only problem is you then end up buying a pile more books, to read detailed stuff about events you don’t know enough about. Crack open a bottle of red and break the back of the first 100 pages in a single sitting. Job done then. You’re hooked.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a big history book that you can really sink your teeth into, and Heffer delivers in spades. He goes into incredible detail about this period, and while exhaustive, it is also interesting and captivating. Well worth the effort!