The Forging of the Modern State

Early Industrial Britain, 1783-c.1870

Eric J. Evans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138243521
• eBook ISBN: 9781351018210
• Edition: 4
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

In what has established itself as a classic study of Britain from the late eighteenth century to the mid-Victorian period, Eric J. Evans explains how the country became the world's first industrial nation. His book also explains how, and why, Britain was able to lay the foundations for what became the world's largest empire. Over the period covered by this book, Britain became the world's most powerful nation and arguably its first super-power.

Economic opportunity and imperial expansion were accompanied by numerous domestic political crises which stopped short of revolution. The book ranges widely: across key political, diplomatic, social, cultural, economic and religious themes in order to convey the drama involved in a century of hectic, but generally constructive, change. Britain was still ruled by wealthy landowners in 1870 as it had been in 1783, yet the society over which they presided was unrecognisable. Victorian Britain had become an urban, industrial and commercial powerhouse.

This fourth edition, coming more than fifteen years after its predecessor, has been completely revised and updated in the light of recent research. It engages more extensively with key themes, including gender, national identities and Britain's relationship with its burgeoning empire. Containing illustrations, maps, an expanded 'Framework of Events' and an extensive 'Compendium of Information' on topics such as population change, cabinet membership and significant legislation, the book is essential reading for all students of this crucial period in British history.

Table of contents

• The Forging of the Modern State- Front Cover
• The Forging of the Modern State
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of maps
• Introduction to the fourth edition
• Note on the Framework of Events
• Publisher’s acknowledgements
• PART I: Reconstruction and the challenge of war, 1783–1815
• Chapter 1: Britain in the early 1780s I: society and economy
• Chapter 2: Britain in the early 1780s II: politics and government
• Chapter 3: ‘A nation restored’ I: politics and finance under Pitt, 1784–90
• Chapter 4: ‘A nation restored’ II: foreign policy and trade, 1783–93
• Chapter 5: The new political economy and the early impact of laissez-faire
• Chapter 6: The new moral economy: Wilberforce, the Saints and New Dissent
• Chapter 7: The decline of the Whigs and the emergence of a new Conservatism, 1788–1812
• Chapter 8: Radicalism, repression and patriotism, 1789–1803
• Chapter 9: The wars with France I: Pitt’s war, Addington’s peace, 1793–1803
• Chapter 10: The wars with France II: endurance and triumph, 1803–15
• Chapter 11: Ireland: The road to Union, 1782–1801
• PART II: Imperial and industrial
• Chapter 12: Empire I: Trade, influence and expansion
• Chapter 13: Empire II: Rule, resistance and reaction
• Chapter 14: The onset of industrialism
• Chapter 15: Entrepreneurs and markets
• Chapter 16: The structure and organisation of the workforce in early industrial Britain
• Chapter 17: A living from the land: landowners, farmers and improvement
• Chapter 18: ‘Living and partly living’: labourers, poverty and protest
• Chapter 19: Standards of living and quality of life
• Chapter 20: Organisations of labour
• Chapter 21: Class consciousness?
• PART III: The crucible of reform, 1815–46
• Chapter 22: Unprepared for peace: distress and the resurgence of reform, 1815–20
• Chapter 23: An Age of ‘Liberalism’?
• Chapter 24: Influence without entanglement: foreign affairs, 1815–46
• Chapter 25: The crisis of reform, 1827–32
• Chapter 26: ‘The real interests of the aristocracy’: the Reform Act of 1832
• Chapter 27: The condition of England question I: the new Poor Law
• Chapter 28: The condition of England question II: factory reform, education and public health
• Chapter 29: ‘The Church in danger’: Anglicanism and its opponents
• Chapter 30: The Age of Peel? Politics and policies, 1832–46
• Chapter 31: The politics of pressure I: Chartism
• Chapter 32: The politics of pressure II: the Anti-Corn Law League
• PART IV: Early industrial society, refined and tested, 1846–70
• Chapter 33: The zenith of the bourgeoisie
• Chapter 34: The professionalisation of government
• Chapter 35: Urban Britain in the Age of Improvement
• Chapter 36: Religion and society in mid-Victorian Britain
• Chapter 37: Leisure and responsibility
• Chapter 38: Education and the consciousness of status
• Chapter 39: ‘An assembly of gentlemen’: Party politics, 1846–59
• Chapter 40: Palmerston and the pax Britannica
• Chapter 41: The revival of reform
• Chapter 42: ‘The principle of numbers’: toward democracy, 1867–70
• Chapter 43: Imperial issues and domestic spheres
• Chapter 44: Identities: a modern State forged?
• Compendium of Information
• Maps
• Bibliography
• Index