Twentieth-Century Britain: An Encyclopedia (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824072057 ISBN 13: 9780824072056

Publisher: Garland Science, 1995

Synopsis

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

About this title

About the Author

The Editor: Fred M. Leventhal, who received his B.A. and his Ph.D. from Harvard, is Professor of British History at Boston University. Among his many publications are Respectable Radical: George Howell and Victorian Working-Class Politics (1971), The Last Dissenter: H. N. Brailsford and His World (1985), and Arthur Henderson (1989). He is co-editor of the journal Twentieth Century British History and former President of the North American Conference on British Studies.

From Booklist

At century's dawn, the British empire girded the globe and the sun never set on the Union Jack. As the century draws to a close, little of the empire remains. The 600-plus entries in this encyclopedia touch on topics that help explain Britain's transformation from fiercely independent world power to sometimes reluctant member of the European Community. Significant among these are political events, politicians, and social issues that political programs have had to address. In selecting political figures, editor Leventhal has excluded those who, although their lives concluded in this century, made their significant contributions during Victoria's era as well as those (e.g., John Major) whose careers may carry into the coming century.

The encyclopedia's strengths lie in its coverage of institutions and those who have shaped them and in its treatment of social issues. Articles on the Cavendish Laboratory, clubs, the Home Guard, the Labour Party, the National Health Service, Methodism, Punch, the Royal Society, and veterans' organizations typify the first category, while articles on architecture, decolonization, emigration, nationalization of industries, police, race relations, revision of The Book of Common Prayer, and women's suffrage typify the second. Biographies of key figures in these institutions and issues amplify coverage. Numerous internal cross-references within articles link related articles, as does the volume's index. Given the nature of a one-volume encyclopedia, none of the articles (which range in length from several hundred to 3,000 words) can analyze their topics in depth. Brief bibliographies concluding each signed article provide pointers for readers who need more than ready-reference information.

Coverage of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (both before and after partition) is spotty. Surprisingly little space is given to the controversies that ultimately resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State. The "canonical culture" represented by such biographees as Anthony Burgess, Benjamin Britten, Graham Greene, Henry Moore, and Virginia Woolf is well represented. In contrast, even though there are articles on fashion, the Beatles, folk song and dance, popular music, and spy novels, coverage of popular culture is weak. Explanations of Teddy Boys, the Monty Python troupe, Liverpool rock and roll, skinheads, or the current generation of royals simply do not appear. There is no article on Elizabeth II, let alone her soap operatic offspring and their wayward spouses.

This encyclopedia complements Sally Mitchell's Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia (Garland, 1988), and through its coverage of significant contributions, such as the invention of radar, the discernment of DNA, the discovery of the neutron, and completion of The Oxford English Dictionary, assures Anglophiles that there will always be an England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Garland Science
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0824072057
• ISBN 13: 9780824072056
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 902
• Editor: Leventhal F. M.