Documentary sources of the period include G.M. Young and W.D. Handcock (eds.), English Historical Documents, 1833–1874 (1956); and W.D. Handcock (ed.), English Historical Documents, 1874–1914 (1977). Elie Halévy, A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, 2nd rev. ed., 6 vol. in 7 (1949–52; originally published in French, 5 vol., 1912–32), has been extremely influential on subsequent accounts, even though it was written long ago. The major source on most aspects of British history apart from politics is now F.M.L. Thompson (ed.), The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750–1950, 3 vol. (1990). The Oxford series volumes are Llewellyn Woodward, The Age of Reform, 1815–1870, 2nd ed. (1962, reprinted 1979); and K. Theodore Hoppen, The New Oxford History of England: The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846–1886 (1998). Other comprehensive histories include Colin Matthew (ed.), The Short Oxford History of the British Isles: The Nineteenth Century (2000); G.M. Young, Portrait of an Age: Victorian England, new annotated ed. (1977), a delightful and very influential short work; and Asa Briggs, The Age of Improvement (1959, reissued 1979). José Harris, The Penguin Social History of Britain: Private Lives, Public Spirit: Britain Taken 1870–1914 (1993), is one of the most interesting of the many surveys of British history published. Patrick Joyce, The Oxford Reader on Class (1995), has much information on the role of class in British history. Also informative are Asa Briggs, Victorian People: A Reassessment of Persons and Themes, 1851–67, rev. ed. (1996), Victorian Cities, new ed. (1968), and Victorian Things, rev. ed. (2003). Walter E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830–1870 (1957); and Samuel Hynes, The Edwardian Turn of Mind (1968), observe cultural and intellectual life. Geoffrey Best, Mid-Victorian Britain, 1851–1875, rev. ed. (1973); and William L. Burn, The Age of Equipoise: A Study of the Mid-Victorian Generation (1964), focus on the middle period of the century. Economic conditions are surveyed in W.H.B. Court, A Concise Economic History of Britain, from 1750 to Recent Times (1954, reprinted 1976). Foreign relations, continental and colonial, and a shift in influence are discussed in R.W. Seton-Watson, Britain in Europe, 1789–1914: A Survey of Foreign Policy (1937, reprinted 1968); C.E. Carrington, The British Overseas: Exploits of a Nation of Shopkeepers, 2nd ed. (1968); Bernard Porter, Britain, Europe, and the World, 1850–1986: Delusions of Grandeur, 2nd ed. (1987); and Keith Robbins, The Eclipse of a Great Power: Modern Britain, 1870–1975 (1983). The transition from Victorian Britain to the 20th century is examined in Donald Read, Edwardian England, 1901–15 (1972). Britain since 1914
J.H. Bettey, English Historical Documents, 1906–1939 (1967), offers a selection of documentary sources. Detailed exploration of the first half of the 20th century is presented in A.J.P. Taylor, English History, 1914–1945 (1965, reissued 1990), from the Oxford series. Peter Clarke, Hope and Glory: Britain 1900–1990 (1996), is a particularly good survey. Social conditions during World War I and its aftermath are examined in Arthur Marwick, The Deluge: British Society and the First World War (1965). Interwar politics are the focus of Charles Loch Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940 (1955, reissued 1971); and Bentley B. Gilbert, Britain Since 1918, 2nd rev. ed. (1980). Social and economic conditions before World War II are observed in Robert Graves and Alan Hodge, The Long Week-End: A Social History of Great Britain, 1918–1939 (1940, reissued 1995); and John Stevenson, British Society, 1914–45 (1984). F.S. Northedge, The Troubled Giant: Britain Among the Great Powers, 1916–1939 (1966), is a diplomatic history of the period. Political and social aspects of involvement in the war are analyzed in Paul Addison, The Road to 1945: British Politics and the Second World War (1975); and Angus Calder, The People’s War: Britain, 1939–1945, new ed. (1992). Paul Knaplund, Britain: Commonwealth and Empire, 1901–1955 (1956, reprinted 1974), treats the decline of the empire, including the first decade of postwar developments. Other histories reaching into the postwar years are W.N. Medlicott, British Foreign Policy Since Versailles, 1919–1963, 2nd rev. ed. (1968); Sidney Pollard, The Development of the British Economy, 1914–1980, 4th ed. (1992); and Alfred F. Havighurst, Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century, 4th ed. (1985). David Butler and Gareth Butler, British Political Facts, 1900–1985, 6th ed. (1986), is an informative reference source. C.J. Bartlett, A History of Postwar Britain, 1945–1974 (1977), is an informative, sustained narrative, and Arthur Marwick, The Penguin Social History of Britain: British Society Since 1945, new ed. (2005), is lively and opinionated. Analyses of the postwar governments include Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945–1951 (1984); and Peter Hennessy and Anthony Seldon (eds.), Ruling Performance: British Governments from Attlee to Thatcher (1987). Paul R. Josephson