A Companion to Eighteenth-century Britain

This authoritative Companion to eighteenth-century Britain includes essays by nearly forty experts from the UK, Europe, the United States and Canada. It introduces students, teachers and general readers to the developments that led to Britain becoming a great world power, the leading European imperial state, and, at the same time, the most economically and socially advanced, politically liberal and religiously tolerant nation in Europe. The volume examines political developments including the founding of the constitution and political system in 1688 and the development of the party political system. It describes economic and social developments in the towns and country which signalled the advent of ls"modernrs" society and the cultural advances in the arts, philosophy and the press which greatly interested other European nations. The book also reminds readers that religion remained a powerful force and preoccupation throughout this period and covers the discussions over religious tolerance. There is also a section on the creation of the United Kingdom from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and the serious divisions that still remained. Finally, the book reveals how Britain became a world power, developing and then losing one empire in America but soon acquiring another in India. This Companion is based on recent research and clearly presents the current state of knowledge and interpretation, demonstrating why this period has recently attracted new scholarly initiatives and historical enquiries.

H. T. Dickinson is Richard Lodge Professor of British History at Edinburgh University. He is a former President of the Historical Association and a former Vice President of the Royal Historical Society. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Richmond. His numerous books include British Radicalism and the French Revolution 1789–1815 (1985), Caricatures and the Constitution 1760–1832 (1986) and The Politics of the People in Eighteenth-Century Britain (1995). He was also editor of the journal History from 1993 to 2000.