Williamsburg Regional Library

After the Victorians, the decline of Britain in the world, A.N. Wilson

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 558-578) and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

After the Victorians

bibliography

61204468

A.N. Wilson

The distinguished historian A.N. Wilson has charted, in vivid detail, Britain's rise to world dominance, a tale of how one small island nation came to be the mightiest, richest country on earth, reigning over much of the globe. Now in his much anticipated sequel to the classic The Victorians, he describes how in little more than a generation Britain's power and influence in the world would virtually dissolve. In After the Victorians, Wilson presents a panoramic view of an era, stretching from the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 to the dawn of the Cold War in the early 1950s. He offers riveting accounts of the savagery of World War I and the world-altering upheaval of the Communist Revolution. He explains Britain's role in shaping the destiny of the Middle East. And he casts a bright new light on the World War II years: Britain played a central role in defeating Germany, but at a severe cost: the nation would emerge from the war bankrupt and fatally weakened, cut off from world politics, while America would assume the mantle of dominant global power, facing off against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Wilson's perspective is not confined to the trenches of the battlefield and the halls of Parliament: he also examines the parallel story of the beginnings of Modernism, considering the novelists, philosophers, poets, and painters of the time to see what they reveal about the activities of politicians, scientists, and generals. Blending military, political, social, and cultural history of the most dramatic kind, A.N. Wilson offers an absorbing portrait of the decline of one of the world's great powers. The result is a fresh account of the birth pangs of the modern world, as well as a timely analysis of imperialism and its discontents

the decline of Britain in the world

Oedipus Rex, Oedipus Kaiser -- Rupees and virgins -- The land -- The accursed power -- Love in the suburbs -- God--and the Americans -- Nationalisms -- Shipwreck -- An Asiatic power -- Barbarous kings -- Revolutions -- Chief -- Peace -- Protons -- Massacres -- Bombs, Ireland and Iraq -- Communist and Fascism -- the allure of violence -- The silly generation--from Oswald Spengler to Noël Coward -- The means of grace and the hope of glory -- The secrets of a woman's heart--Marie Stopes, Radclyffe Hall -- For the benefit of empire -- The ABC of economics -- Puzzles and pastoral -- Two thousand whispered voices -- Politics -- The abdication -- The European crisis -- The special relationship I -- Churchill in 1940 -- From the Battle of Britain to Pearl Harbor -- Bombers and the bombed -- In the broadcast -- The special relationship II -- Prisoners -- If God wearied of mankind -- Retributions -- The end of the British Empire--India and Palestine -- Widmerpool's Britain -- The hereditary principle

adult