Lauren’s Reviews > Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy > Status Update

Tbh this book is kind of radicalising in that Doughty is going on and on about the houses and the power and barely a word breathed about the massive inequality which supported/supports it all. Like. Zero interest in the underlying power structures, just "ooh communities relied on them" yeah bc they made them rely on them for goodness sake.

"It is a good thing that people are no longer doomed to lifetimes of domestic service with no practical alternative, but [...] I think the destruction is regrettable. Many of the great country houses were communities [...] They provided a more secure way of life for everybody in them in those harsh times of hardship" oh my god. The wealthy CREATED the hardship, and the community would have existed without the houses!