the strange death of liberal england by george dangerfield

In both cases liberal values are threatened as society tumbles into crisis – both political and economic. There seems to be a significant parallel between the events described and those of today. We are living in times when the subject of this book is very apt more apt than when I purchased this volume a whole £2.95. Fortunately this book did not disappoint.

That is, when the historical turmoil that made it essential reading have long since passed. The myths created in your mind dissipate when you finally get round to opening the volume. A book with a reputation like this can often disappoint. It's a well known classic, at least on the left, though more 'well known' when I first heard about it than today. As a portrait of England enmeshed in the turbulence of new movements, which often led to violence against the pieties of Liberal England-until it was overwhelmed by the greatest violence of all, World War I-this extraordinary book has continued to exert a powerful influence on the way historians have observed early twentieth-century England.George Dangerfield's The Strange Death of Liberal England (1935) is one of those books that has been on my 'must read' list for something like twenty years. The Strange Death of Liberal England is one of the most important books of the English past, a prime example that history can be abiding literature. Few books of history retain their relevance and vitality after more than sixty years. This is a classic account, first published in 1935, of the dramatic upheaval and political change that overwhelmed England in the period 1910-1914. After a resounding electoral triumph in 1906, the Liberals formed the government of the most powerful nation on earth, yet within a few years the House of Lords lost its absolute veto over legislation, the Home Rule crisis brought Ireland to the brink of civil war and led to an army mutiny, the campaign for woman's suffrage created widespread civil disorder and discredited the legal and penal systems, and an unprecedented wave of strikes swept the land. At the beginning of the twentieth century England's empire spanned the globe, its economy was strong, and its political system seemed immune to the ills that inflicted so many other countries.

The strange death of liberal england by george dangerfield