Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document.... more Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author.
Contemporary Britain is a nation that has clearly lost its oncefamed economic dynamism. From the ... more Contemporary Britain is a nation that has clearly lost its oncefamed economic dynamism. From the workshop of the world, Britain has gradually become 'a Luddite's paradise', to quote Edward Heath in 1970. Yet it has also attracted the admiration of foreigners for its comfortable, easy-going lifestyle.' Both national characteristics have histories, which indeed may be closely related. They may, in fact, be two fruits of the same tree, a tree that took root in the later Victorian years, to blossom only after 1918. The capitalist revolution of the nineteenth century, economic and social historians have noted, though it began in Britain, failed fully to triumph there. As Sir Keith Joseph, the Conservative Party's leading ideologue, has put it:
Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 1976
A few years ago the iconoclastic architectural scholar Reyner Banham declared: William Morris'... more A few years ago the iconoclastic architectural scholar Reyner Banham declared: William Morris's “ruralizing vision of John Ball's other island as a vast medieval dude-ranch full of bit players addressing one another as ‘Neighbour’ just doesn't stand up.” Surely not, if this indeed was Morris's vision. Yet did this vision originate with Morris or with certain of his interpreters? E. P. Thompson has called attention to the growth of a “Morris myth.” Thompson argued that William Morris's revolutionism, and specifically, Marxism, had been buried under layers of praise (and disparagement) for a fictitious—and socially harmless—character. This mythic Morris was a mixture of romantic poet and traditional craftsman, in love with old English countryside and old English folk life. As such, he could be—and was—embraced by Liberals, Tories, and right-wing socialists. Thompson's observation was not the first such, nor the last. By now these protests have altered the commo...
Over a century ago, the pioneer English historian of law F. W. Maitland observed that “If some fa... more Over a century ago, the pioneer English historian of law F. W. Maitland observed that “If some fairy gave me the power of seeing a scene of one and the same kind in every age of history of every race, the kind of scene that I would choose would be a trial for murder, because I think that it would give me so many hints as to a multitude of matters of the first importance.” For many decades Maitland's remark was ignored, as historical scholarship passed over murder trials as far too “atypical” and “sensationalistic” to merit serious study, leaving them to amateur devotees of courtroom drama and detection mysteries. One notable exception was Brian Simpson, the distinguished legal historian, whose Cannibalism and the Common Law, published in 1984, for the first time placed in its social context the leading case of R. v. Dudley & Stephens, which in 1884 produced the still-authoritative rule governing the “necessity” justification for homicide. In Simpson's hands the case, a “sens...
Page 1. The Changing Image of William Cobbett It has become a commonplace to note that history is... more Page 1. The Changing Image of William Cobbett It has become a commonplace to note that history is continually being rewritten. As contemporary preoccupations change, the past is inevitably seen in a different light. Thus, the ...
“Who loves the state these days?” Frances Cairncross rhetorically asked in The Times Literary Sup... more “Who loves the state these days?” Frances Cairncross rhetorically asked in The Times Literary Supplement at the height of the Thatcher era. “People have become more cynical,” she went on, “about the central tenet of socialism: the concept of a wise and beneficent State, representing the best interests of the community at large.” The skepticism about the state as a provider of national well-being which Cairncross was referring to was of course not confined to Britain. Nor was it, in Britain, simply to be identified with “Thatcherism.” Rather, such disillusion developed over a period of several decades and across the political spectrum. As significant in this development as the thunderings of Thatcherites were the reconsiderations of those further left; David Marquand spoke for many when he declared his own tradition of Croslandite social democracy virtually bankrupt, flawed to the root by its statism, through which “civil society was seen, all too often, not as an agent, but as a patient.” The deep shift of opinion embodied in such observations has made its mark in a variety of realms, one of which is the subject of this essay: an alteration in the interpretation of British history, in particular of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the era in which this newly problematical state began to grow into its modern form.It has become something of a truism that historical writing is a part of the wider field of social discourse.
Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document.... more Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author.
Contemporary Britain is a nation that has clearly lost its oncefamed economic dynamism. From the ... more Contemporary Britain is a nation that has clearly lost its oncefamed economic dynamism. From the workshop of the world, Britain has gradually become 'a Luddite's paradise', to quote Edward Heath in 1970. Yet it has also attracted the admiration of foreigners for its comfortable, easy-going lifestyle.' Both national characteristics have histories, which indeed may be closely related. They may, in fact, be two fruits of the same tree, a tree that took root in the later Victorian years, to blossom only after 1918. The capitalist revolution of the nineteenth century, economic and social historians have noted, though it began in Britain, failed fully to triumph there. As Sir Keith Joseph, the Conservative Party's leading ideologue, has put it:
Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 1976
A few years ago the iconoclastic architectural scholar Reyner Banham declared: William Morris'... more A few years ago the iconoclastic architectural scholar Reyner Banham declared: William Morris's “ruralizing vision of John Ball's other island as a vast medieval dude-ranch full of bit players addressing one another as ‘Neighbour’ just doesn't stand up.” Surely not, if this indeed was Morris's vision. Yet did this vision originate with Morris or with certain of his interpreters? E. P. Thompson has called attention to the growth of a “Morris myth.” Thompson argued that William Morris's revolutionism, and specifically, Marxism, had been buried under layers of praise (and disparagement) for a fictitious—and socially harmless—character. This mythic Morris was a mixture of romantic poet and traditional craftsman, in love with old English countryside and old English folk life. As such, he could be—and was—embraced by Liberals, Tories, and right-wing socialists. Thompson's observation was not the first such, nor the last. By now these protests have altered the commo...
Over a century ago, the pioneer English historian of law F. W. Maitland observed that “If some fa... more Over a century ago, the pioneer English historian of law F. W. Maitland observed that “If some fairy gave me the power of seeing a scene of one and the same kind in every age of history of every race, the kind of scene that I would choose would be a trial for murder, because I think that it would give me so many hints as to a multitude of matters of the first importance.” For many decades Maitland's remark was ignored, as historical scholarship passed over murder trials as far too “atypical” and “sensationalistic” to merit serious study, leaving them to amateur devotees of courtroom drama and detection mysteries. One notable exception was Brian Simpson, the distinguished legal historian, whose Cannibalism and the Common Law, published in 1984, for the first time placed in its social context the leading case of R. v. Dudley & Stephens, which in 1884 produced the still-authoritative rule governing the “necessity” justification for homicide. In Simpson's hands the case, a “sens...
Page 1. The Changing Image of William Cobbett It has become a commonplace to note that history is... more Page 1. The Changing Image of William Cobbett It has become a commonplace to note that history is continually being rewritten. As contemporary preoccupations change, the past is inevitably seen in a different light. Thus, the ...
“Who loves the state these days?” Frances Cairncross rhetorically asked in The Times Literary Sup... more “Who loves the state these days?” Frances Cairncross rhetorically asked in The Times Literary Supplement at the height of the Thatcher era. “People have become more cynical,” she went on, “about the central tenet of socialism: the concept of a wise and beneficent State, representing the best interests of the community at large.” The skepticism about the state as a provider of national well-being which Cairncross was referring to was of course not confined to Britain. Nor was it, in Britain, simply to be identified with “Thatcherism.” Rather, such disillusion developed over a period of several decades and across the political spectrum. As significant in this development as the thunderings of Thatcherites were the reconsiderations of those further left; David Marquand spoke for many when he declared his own tradition of Croslandite social democracy virtually bankrupt, flawed to the root by its statism, through which “civil society was seen, all too often, not as an agent, but as a patient.” The deep shift of opinion embodied in such observations has made its mark in a variety of realms, one of which is the subject of this essay: an alteration in the interpretation of British history, in particular of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the era in which this newly problematical state began to grow into its modern form.It has become something of a truism that historical writing is a part of the wider field of social discourse.
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