The Human Tradition in Modern Britain

(Paperback)

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Description

This engaging book provides a gateway to larger themes in modern British history through a set of fascinating portraits of individuals that explore important events and movements from the perspective of the people involved. Political developments are illuminated through chapters on John Locke, Charles Townshend, popular radicalism, and Margaret Thatcher. Religion and education are considered through essays on evangelicalism, the Oxford Movement, Charles Bradlaugh, and Sir James Kay Shuttleworth. Industrial and imperial questions are explored through pieces on the Great Exhibition, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and post-colonial Nigeria. National identity and wartime experience come to life in the lives of G. K. Chesterton and of Barbara Nixon, an Airraid Warden during the Blitz. Many of the chapters examine the experiences of women, including single women in early modern England, suffragettes, and Irish nationalist Mary Butler. As a rich and humanized approach to history, this book offers readers a deeper understanding of key facets of British life in the early modern and modern periods.

Reviews

The collection's scope is impressive, and the essays are beautifully written yet quite accessible. This volume will no doubt serve to make history come alive both for students and the general public. Highly recommended. All public and undergraduate collections. -- S. L. Hoglund, SUNY at Stony Brook * Choice Reviews *
The collection's scope is impressive, and the essays are beautifully written yet quite accessible. This volume will no doubt serve to make history come alive both for students and the general public. Highly recommended. -- S. L. Hoglund * Choice Reviews *
Students will find these essays about notable persons an invaluable means of relating to an issue or idea on a individual level, which then allows them to approach larger concepts with greater understanding. The Human Tradition in Modern Britain will be very useful in classes as the basis for lively discussions. -- Margaret Minor, Nicholls State University

Author Bio

Caroline Litzenberger is associate professor of history at Portland State University.
Eileen Groth Lyon is associate professor of history at the State University of New York at Fredonia.