The Transformation of British Politics 1860-1995 - Hardcover

Harrison, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198731221 ISBN 13: 9780198731221

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

The British political system has been the model and the inspiration for many national governments world-wide. Yet it is now at the centre of controversial debate within Britain itself. Over the 130 years since Bagehot wrote his English Constitution, no historian has investigated in depth how it has evolved in all its dimensions, and few political scientists have looked further back than the Second World War. This is the first book to provide a detailed explanation of how the British political system came to acquire the form it has today.
Brian Harrison's broad-ranging, authoritative analysis runs continuously from the 1860s to the 1990s. He investigates such topics as civil liberties, pressure groups, parliament, elections and the parties, central and local government, cabinet, and monarchy. He examines the international and cultural influences on the working of the political system, and concludes by surveying current proposals for reform. With an ample guide to further reading, and a full chronology of leading events, this book will be essential reading for students of politics and history.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Harrison, Fellow and Tutor in Modern History and Politics at Corpus Christi College, is Reader in Modern British History at Oxford University.

Review

`Brian Harrison is an admirable guide to the history that has produced the state of our current politics...fruitfully committed to a historical understanding of British politics.'
The Guardian

`Brian Harrison does a service with a painstakingly researched and well presented book ... we will be well served if all 'would be reformers' will read it. In a short review, it is impossible to comment on every subject, but each is dealt with in a masterly fashion. It is made more readable by
the 'segmental' rather than chronological approach.'
Robert S. Redmond, Contemporary Review

`serious history'
Leonard Tivey, University of Birmingham, Political Quarterly

`The Transformation of British Politics is really two books, artfully, even brilliantly, combined within one set of covers. One is hugely learned, wide-ranging and in some registers strikingly innovative history of British political institutions since the 1860s. The other is a polemic
broadside against radical constitutional reform. ... The survey gains enormously from its sheer breadth of reference. ... it is as alert to the researches of social and cultural historians as to the study of high politics.'
History Today, 1 August 1997

`Dr Harrison has produced perhaps the finest contemporary history of British politics yet written.'
History Today, August 1997

`The Transformation of British Politics is really two books, artfully, even brilliantly, combined within one set of covers. One is a hugely learned, wide-ranging and in some registers strikingly innovative history of British political institutions since the 1860s. The other is a polemical
broadside against radical constitutional reform. Dr Harrison has produced perhaps the finest contemporary history of British politics yet written.'
Stephen Howe, History Today, Vol. 47 (8) Aug 97

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0198731221
• ISBN 13: 9780198731221
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 626