This is a thoroughly fine textbook. As the fourth and final part of the CUP series „Cambridge History of Britain“, the present volume continues where John Miller’s volume on Early Modern Britain left off. The author, professor in Late Modern Europe at the University of California, Berkeley, is an expert on British history from the eighteenth century to the present day. Vernon’s specific approach of combining national, imperial, local, and global accounts is clearly reflected in this book.
Historians decide what history they write, and so does Vernon. Very clearly he outlines his approach to British history in the brief preface to the book. His focus rests on two main points of interest: first, in which was a „liberal political economy“ defined Britain, or more precisely „a cluster of assumptions about how governments, populations and empires worked best in relationship to each other when markets were made to operate freely“. Secondly, the book is centred on the creation of the „British world“, that is how „the world helped to make modern Britain“ (p. xxii). Inverting the common perspective of the United Kingdom shaping the world (as far as its empire was concerned and beyond), it brings the world to Britain by asking how globally important events established modern Britain. In this respect, Vernon discusses, to name just one example from the beginning of the volume, the effects of American independence on Britain (which raised discussion of demands for a general right to vote, the consequences of excessive taxation, the creation of an alternative parliament and, consequently, parliamentary reform). In doing so, Vernon has composed a factual account of events, as is necessary for a survey, but it also includes many different angles and perspectives, most prominently an approach based on cultural history in the broadest sense, masterly interwoven in his chapters.
As a result, the five parts (1750–1819, 1819–1885, 1885–1931, 1931–1976, 1976-) do not follow traditional caesuras of political history but fit into his broader narrative. Didactic in nature, all parts except the fifth are structured alike, containing three chapters each, exploring politics, the economy, and society. One cannot help but be reminded of Hans-Ulrich Wehler’s societal history approach (Gesellschaftsgeschichte). Wehler in his ground-breaking and controversial tomes on modern history used culture as a fourth analytical dimension. Being a genuinely cultural history of politics, economy, and society throughout, Vernon’s Modern Britain, however, spares itself the snares of such an analytical framework. What he shares with Wehler, however, is the strong emphasis on economic forces that shaped the British societies from the Enlightenment to the present and the political and social reactions to them that led to more economic management and the development and (re-)defining of the welfare state.
With its clear and explicit language, its highly informative black-and-white yet graphically flawless maps and tables, its glossary and its textboxes that provide background information on individuals, places or sources, the volume is expertly tailored to its targeted readership. Written to be used as a resource for first-year students, Vernon’s book meets the highest standards in almost every aspect.
The many strengths and very few weaknesses of the volume can be assessed exemplarily by an evaluation of Chapter 10 on „Late Imperialism and Social Democracy“, serving as pars pro toto for the entire volume. The chapter forms part of Section Four on 1931–1976 and deals with the transformation of Britain’s economy from the interwar to the post-Second World War era. Here, Vernon confronts his readers with a huge amount of data and statistics, but at the same time he demonstrates his great ability to describe and to analyse the historical change in a complex, yet readable way. The chapter starts (as does every other chapter) with a timeline including key events in politics and war along with social and economic developments, providing a fundamental understanding of what the reader will encounter on the following pages. Vernon highlights the imperial dimensions of Britain’s economy, elucidating just how globally connected it was and how thoroughly it was interdependent and entangled with the empire. In his account, Vernon combines individuals and their voices (such as, for example, women’s rights activist Marie Stopes, portrayed in one of the textboxes) with broader industrial, political, or consumption trends, putting all of them in perspective. Describing Stopes’ influential sex manual, he concludes: „Other birth control campaigners did not embrace the eugenics movement, but Stoples’s [!] work illustrated that planning sex in the bedroom was, for some, intricately related to planning a better society“ (p. 365) which highlights his point of interrelating different levels of analysis. Vernon also includes pressure groups, experiences of poverty during the 1930s and the government’s scientific management of policies in reaction to the Great Depression. Keynes’ ideas, he explains, did not lead to a British New Deal because only the Liberal Democrats embraced it.
The history of the Second World War in his text explores neither events at the front lines in continental Europe or elsewhere nor war strategy and violence, but is instead mainly a history of a state-driven economy that explains food rationing at home, Mass Observation and the context of the Beveridge Report. However, it also encompasses the changing nature of the British empire during the war in which the Colonial Department applied „a new language of partnership among the Commonwealth of nations“ (p. 369).
Post-wartime topics cover the unexpected general election victory of Labour in 1945 and the trouble the Conservative party faced after their takeover in 1951, the foundation of the NHS, the post-war boom, the mass society and, again, homefront consequences of the war such as the 1948 British Nationality Act offering British citizenship to all colonial subjects. The subchapter „Managing Affluence and Consensus“ (p. 380) returns to the narrative of planning, rationing and social housing programmes, which acts as a guiding thread. The rise of the consumer is addressed in a subchapter on its own, covering inter- and post-war advertising in the private sector and party politics. Here, the book’s approach of offering a cultural history of society, economics and politics becomes evident and pays off.
In this chapter, as in the entire book, Vernon’s history is centred on Britain yet takes international developments into account as far as they affect domestic affairs. Likewise, at the end of all chapters, a separate section suggests further reading on main research topics. All of the mentioned features allow Vernon to draw a sophisticated, lively and critical picture of the transformation processes including macropolitical perspectives and personal stories.
In the end, is there anything to dislike about Vernon’s volume? Not much, really. After reviewing such a comprehensive monograph, it would be a cheap shot to complain about what is missing since an author simply cannot include everything. He has to set priorities, which Vernon clearly does and also explains to his readers. What is more important is the way Vernon deals with sources: even though space is, of course, limited, it is essential to highlight not only the potential of sources but also their limits and restrictions, especially when writing for first-year students. This critical approach is missing, however, as several sources are presented in a fairly positivistic way, leaving issues such as representativity, subjectivity or (visual) perspective aside. Sometimes sources are even left without any interpretation, as in the case of campaign posters used in a simple illustrative manner, as seen in chapter 10 (pp. 374, 389, 390). Yet, this goes for the textboxes and figures only, as the main body of Vernon’s text is balanced and contextualised throughout. Still, this issue remains a crucial point given the importance of sources for historical research.
What is more, since the book aims to introduce students to history, it would have benefited from a few more methodological comments. Explaining the perspectives and the value of different approaches to history would have helped to familiarise students with them, especially if one follows such a clear and convincing programme as Vernon did. If methodological parentheses in this historical narrative were not desired, the section on further reading would have been a suitable opportunity to provide them. The volume, thus, is not as much an introduction to thinking in historical approaches as it ideally could have been, but this was, to be fair, not its stated aim.
Notwithstanding these minor objections, Vernon presents a volume one can only congratulate him for and which students will undoubtedly and rightly take advantage of.