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The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, by David Cannadine
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"A brilliant, multifaceted chronicle of economic and social change." --The New York Times
"No praise can be too high." --The New York Review of Books
At the outset of the 1870s, the British aristocracy could rightly consider themselves the most fortunate people on earth: they held the lion's share of land, wealth, and power in the world's greatest empire. By the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige, and political significance.
Deftly orchestrating an enormous array of documents and letters, facts, and statistics, David Cannadine shows how this shift came about--and how it was reinforced in the aftermath of the Second World War. Astonishingly learned, lucidly written, and sparkling with wit, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy is a landmark study that dramatically changes our understanding of British social history.
"Cannadine has produced a great book, one that is comprehensive in its scope, and of critical importance." --London Review of Books
- Sales Rank: #90177 in Books
- Brand: Cannadine, David
- Published on: 1999-09-07
- Released on: 1999-09-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.95" h x 1.72" w x 5.17" l, 1.70 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 848 pages
From Library Journal
Columbia historian Cannadine offers a detailed study of the decline of the "British landed establishment" from 1880 to the present, due to political, economic, and social changes. Most of his analysis is centered on the period which saw the biggest changes, 1880-1930, and concentrates on England, while touching on Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Intertwined in the overall picture are tidbits about notable families. Cannadine has synthesized a multitude of secondary sources for this work. He includes a detailed index which, however, lacks some names and subjects. His dense book is much too long for the general reader. Primarily for students and specialists working on this topic.
- Kathleen Farago, Lakewood P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
"A brilliant, multifaceted chronicle of economic and social change." --"The New York Times
"No praise can be too high." --"The New York Review of Books
At the outset of the 1870s, the British aristocracy could rightly consider themselves the most fortunate people on earth: they held the lion's share of land, wealth, and power in the world's greatest empire. By the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige, and political significance.
Deftly orchestrating an enormous array of documents and letters, facts, and statistics, David Cannadine shows how this shift came about--and how it was reinforced in the aftermath of the Second World War. Astonishingly learned, lucidly written, and sparkling with wit, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy is a landmark study that dramatically changes our understanding of British social history.
"Cannadine has produced a great book, one that is comprehensive in its scope, and of critical importance." --"London Review of Books
About the Author
David Cannadine lives in England.
Most helpful customer reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
An Indispensable Threnody
By Daniel Myers
This book is an absolute must read for anyone interested not merely in the decline of British aristocracy, but in the swift changes wrought in British society, politics and literature from 1880 to the outbreak of WWII. Cannadine does cover WWII and the following decades, but he gives them rather short shrift, for, as the exacting and exhaustive main body of this magisterial work makes superabundantly clear, the British aristocracy was already in rigor mortis by then.
What made this work so indispensable to me was that it showed the actual, very real, background for literary works written during this period: Waugh, Wilde, Wodehouse, Yeats and, of course, the Mitfords. If you want to know the reality of what happened to estates like Waugh's fictional Brideshead, you will learn all about the land devaluation, estate taxes and encumbrances on such estates originally contracted in order to ensure entail and jointures, but now spelling their doom. You will meet many, all too many, real life Lady Marchmains and understand more fully the social backdrop which makes them totally unsuited for the 20th Century.
And, well, let's just take an actual case: Bertrand Russell. Primogeniture ensured that the gentrified earldom in which he came of age passed onto his brother. In previous eras, a generous codicil with annuity would have, nevertheless, granted him lifelong security. Unfortunately, due to land devaluation, his brother went bankrupt and lost everything except the title. Russell, too, lost everything and became a Socialist member of the Labour party, not entirely because of his ideological position and philosophical beliefs, but because of something deeper from which they arose: a visceral animosity to the industrialists and capitalists who now controlled the country. As Cannadine points out, there were really only two extreme positions for such disillusioned, disinherited aristos to take: socialism or fascism. Of course, Russell was a genius who made great advances in the field of mathematics and went on to win the Nobel Prize in literature. But, through most of his life, he had to support himself through lectures and writing; and, until the publication and unexpected popularity of his A History of Western Philosophy, he was almost continuously on the verge of bankruptcy. Even after his brother died and he became Lord Russell, he maintained that the only benefit that accrued from the title was the ability to secure hotel rooms. The point exemplified here, so well explicated by Cannadine, is that, after over seven hundred years of Earls and their ilk being the ruling, moneyed class, they met an end so swiftly and irretrievably at the hands of industrialism and capitalism, that these former members of the ruling class had no recourse in this unfamiliar world than to become quixotic Utopians, or socialists like Russell or quixotic Arcadians, or fascists, like Oswald Moseley.
Cannadine is a wonderful writer, and in spite of the jumble of numerous titled names that pile up in so many paragraphs - Duke This, Duchess That etc. - which he must needs provide along with 8 Appendices and over 3,000 footnotes in order to provide the scholarly underpinnings necessary for the work's credibility, it is all surprisingly readable. In one section, Cannadine larkishly names the chapters after Shakespearean plays: Ireland: A Winter's Tale, The Church: Much Ado About Nothing etc.
My attention was drawn to this work by reviews of a spate of books that have recently come out on this subject. The reviews, almost to a one, compare the new ones to this book, and find them seriously lacking indeed in the juxtaposition. I can only say that Cannadine's ten years spent in the composition of it were extremely well spent.
Finally, there is the question of how one has come to feel about all these once privileged Peers after wading through this meticulous account of the upheavals that led to their downfall. I should say that any reader who has even only slight misgivings about the fast-paced, leisureless, de facto capitalist lives we all live now to some extent can't help but feel a touch of sympathy for these hothouse flowers pushed out into the cold.
Let's allow the scion of a once powerful family to have the last word. Lord Robert Cecil: "I am unfitted for political life, because I have a resigning habit of mind."
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Too scholarly for me to enjoy.
By Susan Tucker
A study of the politics, politicians and legislation in the first half of the 20th century, Too scholarly for me to enjoy.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting Overview But Leaves Many Questions
By david brown
First let me begin by recommending this book to potential readers. While I have read the occasional biography of historic British aristocrats this is the first overview of their decline that I have read. I found it to be comprehensive in dealing with a variety of political, economic and social factors affecting the British aristocracy. David Cannadine's writing is clear and very readable. However the book deals with many concepts, some of significant complexity, and reader involvement is required but will be rewarded.
In his introduction the author acknowledges that many critics have identified him as a left wing intellectual and that the reader is therefore forewarned. In truth one of the reasons why the book is so readable is that there is relatively little overt class bashing. That does not mean that the author and the book are not heavily biased. However the bias is more the omission of critical questioning rather than in your face editorializing. For example the government mandated declines of 20-40% in rents from tenant farmers, which was a major factor in bankrupting the landowning aristocrats. While the author clearly relishes the outcome, the breakup of major estates, there is no substantive analysis of whether the rent reductions were in fact economically justified (as opposed to politically expedient). Since the author clearly states that the land, valued by its rents, was far less than the value of the land based on tenant farmer income it is by no means clear that rents were excessive. Also there is no history presented as to how the landlords and tenants had historically adjusted rents during crop failure etc. Nor, apparently since the author thinks the landlords had it coming, is there any discussion about the morality or legality of the government effectively confiscating the economic value of the land without compensation. I think any reader will enjoy the overview presented by this book but they do have to keep in mind the questions not asked by the author.
Surprisingly I found it impossible to read the book without concluding that the aristocracy were victims. The politicians drove down food prices, by opening the market to low cost imports, in order to benefit the large urban populations arising from industrialization. The politicians then skewed the resulting decline in farm incomes, by arbitrarily reducing rents received by the landlords in favor of the tenants. I'm sure the fact that there were few landlords to vote but many tenants was a consideration. The politicians then further curried favor with the electorate by double and triple taxing the landlords until they had no net income from the properties and had to sell. The tenants, poor and oppressed according to the author, magically turn out to rich enough to immediately buy the properties at fire sale prices (another question not asked by the author). The author appears to believe that the mere possession of so much land by so few will will provoke righteous indignation amongst the readers but unfortunately his facts make the politicians and voters appear far more venal.
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