A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain

This authoritative Companion introduces readers to the developments that lead 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.

• Covers political, social, cultural, economic and religious history. Written by an international team of experts.
• Examines Britain's position from the perspective of other European nations.

List of Maps x

List of Contributors xi

Introduction xv

Maps xix

Part I Politics and the Constitution 1

1 The British Constitution 3
H. T. Dickinson

2 The British State 19
Eckhart Hellmuth

3 Finance and Taxation 30
Patrick Karl O’Brien

4 Local Government and Local Society 40
David Eastwood

5 Parliament, Parties and Elections (1688–1760) 55
Brian Hill

6 Parliament, Parties and Elections (1760–1815) 69
Stephen M. Lee

7 The Jacobite Movement 81
Daniel Szechi

8 Popular Politics and Radical Ideas 97
H. T. Dickinson

9 The Crisis of the French Revolution 112
Emma Vincent Macleod

Part II The Economy and Society 125

10 Manufacturing and Commerce 127
John Rule

11 Agriculture and Rural Life 141
Gordon Mingay

12 The Landed Elite 158
Richard G. Wilson

13 The Middling Orders 172
Nicholas Rogers

14 The Labouring Poor 183
John Rule

15 Urban Life and Culture 196
Peter Borsay

16 Women and the Family 209
John D. Ramsbottom

Part III Religion 223

17 The Church of England 225
Jeremy Gregory

18 Religious Minorities in England 241
Colin Haydon

19 Methodism and the Evangelical Revival 252
G. M. Ditchfield

20 Religion in Scotland 260
Stewart J. Brown

21 Religion in Ireland 271
Sean J. Connolly

Part IV Culture 281

22 Print Culture 283
Bob Harris

23 Political Ideas from Locke to Paine 294
Pamela Edwards

24 The Making of Elite Culture 311
Maura A. Henry

25 Literature and Drama 329
J. Alan Downie

26 Popular Culture 344
Bob Bushaway

27 Crime and Punishment 358
James A. Sharpe

Part V Union and Disunion in the British Isles 367

28 Integration: Patriotism and Nationalism 369
Colin Kidd

29 Scotland and the Union 381
Alexander Murdoch

30 Wales in the Eighteenth Century 392
Geraint H. Jenkins

31 Ireland: The Making of the ‘Protestant Ascendancy’, 1690–1760 403
Paddy McNally

32 Ireland: Radicalism, Rebellion and Union 414
Martyn J. Powell

Part VI Britain and the Wider World 429

33 Britain’s Emergence as a European Power, 1688–1815 431
H. M. Scott

34 Britain and the Atlantic World 447
W. A. Speck

35 Britain and India 460
Bruce P. Lenman

36 The British Army 473
Stanley D. M. Carpenter

37 The Royal Navy 481
Richard Harding

38 Britain and the Slave Trade 489
John Oldfield

Bibliography 499

Index 516

"This superb work by leading historian of the period provides a series of introductions to the most important themes for study. The authors bring the most up to date scholarship to bear in their work. Readable, sensible, perceptive and intelligent. If there is one book to use for this century, this is it."
Archives Book Reviews

"The accounts are succinct, very up-to-date and based upon regional as well as national evidence."
Northern History

"If this volume is any indication, the series will be successful. Dickinson has collected an array of prominent historians to digest and briefly discuss the trends in their respective fields. This is a collection of essays that most students will find exceptionally useful, and most faculty members will appreciate: Highly recommended."
Choice

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. 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 ‘modern’ 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.