Dominion: The History of England from the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

by Peter Ackroyd

Overview

"Ackroyd, as always, is well worth the read." —Kirkus, starred review

Dominion, the fifth volume of Peter Ackroyd’s masterful History of England, begins in 1815 as national glory following the Battle of Waterloo gives way to a post-war depression and ends with the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901.

Spanning the end of the Regency, Ackroyd takes readers from the accession of the profligate George IV whose government was steered by Lord Liverpool, whose face was set against reform, to the ‘Sailor King’ William IV whose reign saw the modernization of the political system and the abolition of slavery.

But it was the accession of Queen Victoria, at only eighteen years old, that sparked an era of enormous innovation. Technological progress—from steam railways to the first telegram—swept the nation and the finest inventions were showcased at the first Great Exhibition in 1851. The emergence of the middle-classes changed the shape of society and scientific advances changed the old pieties of the Church of England, and spread secular ideas among the population. Though intense industrialization brought booming times for the factory owners, the working classes were still subjected to poor housing, long work hours, and dire poverty. Yet by the end of Victoria’s reign, the British Empire dominated much of the globe, and Britannia really did seem to rule the waves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250812162
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/14/2021
Series:	The History of England , #5
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	152,212
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

PETER ACKROYD is an award-winning novelist, as well as a broadcaster, biographer, poet, and historian. He is the author of the acclaimed London: The Biography, and the History of England series. He holds a CBE for services to literature and lives in London.

Table of Contents

1. Malign spirits
2. The Thing
3. Eternity work
4. A queasy world
5. The door of change
6. False hope
7. The Inspector
8. Steam and speed
9. The pig is killed
10. Young hopefulness
11. City lights
12. Charitable government
13. The salamander
14. A most gorgeous sight
15. Blood lust
16. A dark world
17. Quite the fashion
18. The game cock
19. The unexpected revolution
20. She cannot go on
21. The Tichborne affair
22. The Angel
23. The Empress
24. This Depression
25. Frightful news
26. Daddy-Long-Legs
27. Lost illusions
28. The terrible childbed

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

09/10/2018
This fast-paced fifth volume of a popular history of England by Ackroyd—a novelist, broadcaster, biographer, and poet—covers 1815–1901, a time dominated by the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), characterized by the growth of the British Empire, and marked by such socioeconomically transformative inventions as the steam engine, railroad, and telegraph. The industrial revolution brought to England both economic dominance and brutal factory life—children as young as nine were allowed to work 12 hours a day in cotton factories, for example. The period also saw three reform acts expanding the franchise for British men to about 60% of the male population. Ackroyd devotes much of his best chapter to the one major English war in Europe during this period, that in Crimea against Russia in the 1850s. He sometimes captures the zeitgeist by quoting literary works, as when he notes that Oscar Wilde’s 1891 essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” railed against what Wilde called the “stupidity, and hypocrisy, and Philistinism” of fin de siècle English life. However, with the exception of a passage on the pioneering geologist and paleontologist Mary Anning, Ackroyd largely ignores the lives and achievements of non-royal English women and how the Irish potato famine of the 1840s affected English life. These omissions aside, this is an informative and lively look at early modern England. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Dominion

"Ackroyd, as always, is well worth the read." —Kirkus, starred review

"Ackroyd's deep and broad canvas is rich in informative details and will appeal to all readers interested in British history while especially pleasing those fascinated by this era." —Booklist

"An informative and lively look at early modern England." —Publishers Weekly

"Ackroyd remains a graceful, stylish, and prolific writer as well as an attentive historian." —Christian Science Monitor

Praise for Revolution

“Ackroyd (Rebellion) continues his fast-paced overview of the tumultuous English monarchy with the fourth volume in the series, an account of the "long 18th century" (1688–1815) that covers the evolution of literature, trade, technology, and politics…Ackroyd offers suitable background on the momentous events and key figures that helped create modern Britain.” —Publishers Weekly

“[T]he author eschews the detached third person preferred by stuffy professionals, favouring instead a more intimate 'you' that brings the reader into the dark alleys of industrial towns.” —The Times

Praise for Peter Ackroyd

"Marvelously erudite and staggeringly industrious." —Los Angeles Times

"For Ackroyd, the past isn't merely past; it's alive." —The Boston Globe

"Ackroyd is a medium through which the obscured voices of the past are channeled." —Newsday

From the Publisher

★ 2018-07-31

The fifth volume in the acclaimed author's history of England.

Ackroyd's (Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo, 2017, etc.) observation that nobody can live in an age outside their own because the smells, sights, and reality would be unendurable will awaken many readers to our similarities and differences. The 19th century saw something new springing up nearly every day. From the days of Wellington and Peel, Corn Laws, Catholic crisis, and bad harvests through Gladstone, Disraeli, and the Industrial Revolution, the only thing that was static was the plight of the poor, who never rose like the strengthening middling class. Likewise, the author cleverly points to the Irish problem as an English problem. They owned the land, ruled, administered, and never went away. The century saw few wars from Waterloo until the 1848 revolutions, which were described by Lewis Namier as a "turning point at which history failed to turn." From that time onward, each great power was at war at one time or another. England had fewer wars but was constantly warding off threats to the empire. Happily avoiding quotidian life, military history, or too much economics, Ackroyd describes the character of the age perfectly. England was banker to the world; God and duty were two of the most important elements of the period; prose was the language of power; and politics were not a question of policy but of personality. "Cant was the moral cloud which covered the nineteenth century," writes the author. "It was part of the age of respectability….Cant encompassed the politician who smiled while remaining a villain; cant was the language of the moral reformer who closes public houses on Sunday….Never has a period been so concerned to give the right impression."

Though this installment doesn't quite match the first four in capturing our imaginations, Ackroyd, as always, is well worth the read.

Kirkus Reviews