This is more or less the only available general history of Britain in the eighteenth century. Mr. O'Gorman is professor of history at Manchester University and is writing for students and other academics. He has clearly read the entire literature on the subject and refers frequently to it, and a feature of the book is his weighing up of opposing viewpoints.The style of the book is to chop the period up into three or four segments and then go through each segment three times, looking in turn at political, social and other aspects. This can be wearisome particularly to the general reader such as myself, but the result is a thoroughly thought through and comprehensive understanding of the period. You have to really want to understand how the social aspects, of say working class movement for reform or the influence of the movement for catholic emancipation worked in with the political juggling of Canning and Peel to really enjoy this book, but if you do it works a treat.
At times I felt Mr. O'Gorman's enthusiastic juggling of the different strands leads to unintentional obscurity - some sentences I just could not figure out, and it can be irritating when he repeatedly refers to events without explaining them because he doesn't do that until the next chapter. Also if you want blow by blow accounts of the Napoleonic wars or the glories of our foreign policy you need to read a more traditional history, here you just get enough to produce a balanced account of life in Britain and the general development of our country.
On balance a readable, enthusiastic, balanced and comprehensive history of a fascinating period.
