Cheshire Airfields in the Second World War Book

In his 'informal history' of the Oxford University Press, P.H. Sutcliffe notes that 'the quintessential Clarendon Press book [is] impenetrably erudite that it [is] impossible to extract from it any passage likely to entice the non-specialist reader'. Whilst this is indeed true for many Clarendon titles, it is certainly not true for Seeking a Role , the penultimate volume of the New Oxford History of England. Harrison's prose is admirably readable, and the book reads very quickly indeed (at least by the standard of a 600-page tome).

I picked this up because I found myself embarrassingly ignorant of the modern history of the country where I have lived for my entire adult life. Although I have a BA in history for a British university, I never actually studied either British history or history post-1945. I was therefore desperately in need of filling some gaps in my knowledge. For those who, like me, need a refresher, I can recommend Harrison with a few significant caveats.

Firstly, this is not a narrative history. Harrison's organisation is thematic, although never wholly synchronic. Whilst I do not find this as much of a problem as the reviewer for the English Historical Review did, it is certainly necessary to keep a chronology at hand. Fortunately, an excellent one is provided at the end of the volume.

Harrison's range is undeniably vast. He seeks to cover all aspects of British political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural history in his chosen timeframe. Inevitably, this has benefits and drawbacks. In the section of intellectual culture, I found the single paragraph on classical studies to be judicious, if inevitably rushed. Harrison is quite right to highlight the increasing professionalisation of classics as a result of the overall shrinking of the discipline combined with the arrival in the UK of many continental refugee-scholars. He is right also to point out E.R. Dodds' The Greeks and the Irrational as a seminal work. Given Harrison's background as a Professor Emeritus of British History at Oxford, it is perhaps unsurprising that he is more capable still when writing about the development of his own discipline. Elsewhere, however, his desire to touch all bases can result in laughably cursory treatment: it would probably be better to leave the development of ballet untouched than to confine it a single, somewhat banal, sentence.

Harrison is comfortable using data and figures, but he also loves a good anecdote. On the whole, this is a plus. However, sometimes the connection between his anecdotes and the wider story is pretty strained. I, for one, am not convinced that the retreat of the Church of England from public life was in any way symbolised by Michael Ramsey's decision to wear a cassock rather than apron and gaiters.