Britain's 19th century was a period of unprecedented and rapid change - the modernization of a world power. This text is a fresh, authoritative history of this period. Britain is set firmly in the context of world power and the possession of empire. The overarching theme is the challenge presented by democracy in a period framed by the First and the Fourth Reform Acts. Democracy itself had no stable meaning. Contrary to popular memory, its opponents were quite as vocal as its advocates. This book explores its implications for the role of the state, for the governance of the world's largest...

This book traces the history of the relationship between work and leisure, from the 'leisure preference' of male workers in the eighteenth century, through the increase in working hours in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to their progressive decline from 1830 to 1970. It examines how trade union action was critical in achieving the decline; how class structured the experience of leisure; how male identity was shaped by both work and leisure; how, in a society that placed high value on work, a 'leisured class' was nevertheless at the apex of political and social power...

This book traces the history of the relationship between work and leisure, from the 'leisure preference' of male workers in the eighteenth century, through the increase in working hours in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to their progressive decline from 1830 to 1970. It examines how trade union action was critical in achieving the decline; how class structured the experience of leisure; how male identity was shaped by both work and leisure; how, in a society that placed high value on work, a 'leisured class' was nevertheless at the apex of political and social power...