Reviews for The Jews in the History of England, 1485-1850

The average rating for The Jews in the History of England, 1485-1850 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-08-02 00:00:00 Courtney Jimas In 1934, Oxford University Press published the first volume in the “Oxford History of England” series. As subsequent volumes came out over the next 31 years, they came to serve as indispensable surveys of English history, the natural starting point for anyone interested in England’s past and a powerful force influencing our understanding of it. Yet as the state of historical scholarship evolved, gradually the volumes became outdated in terms of their presentation and interpretation of the past. In response, Oxford launched a “New Oxford History of England” series, of which Paul Langford’s book was the inaugural title. In it Langford offers a wide-ranging history of England from the accession of George II to the loss of the American colonies. He presents the era as a chaotic one, with the country still coping with the consequences of the Glorious Revolution, which let a deep impression upon politics and society. Though the aristocracy remained the dominant group in many respects, the author sees the middle class increasingly coming to play a vital role in English life as the century progressed. In an age of commercial prosperity, their”polite” values increasingly contested with those of the upper class, setting the stage for their gradual assertion as the dominant segment of society in the century that followed. Langford’s book is an outstanding survey of Hanoverian England, one that draws upon an impressive range of scholarship. Though his main focus is on the politics and society of the period, very little escapes his coverage, as economics, art, and literature also are addressed within its pages. Though he presumes that his readers possess some prior knowledge of his subject (the mini biographies of people offered in footnotes in the old series are absent here), his analysis and arguments are clear and forcefully made. The understanding he provides of the era makes his book a critical resource on the subject, and a worthy successor volume to those from the venerable old series.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-01 00:00:00 Kenneth Kite Excellent general history that is arranged both chronologically and thematically. It includes political, economic, social and cultural history. It covers a lot of ground yet manages to be both detailed and accessible. A fascinating period of English history, with shifts in politics and the economy that still shape the country today. You’ll be interested to know there were dodgy bankers in the City even then. 1776 turned out to be a great year for books: The Wealth of Nations, Common Sense and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Not a bad effort really.