Dominion: A History of England Volume V (The History of England) by Peter Ackroyd (PDF)

Description

Ackroyd makes history accessible to the layman’ – Ian Thomson, IndependentThe penultimate volume of Peter Ackroyd’s masterful History of England series, Dominion begins in 1815 as national glory following the Battle of Waterloo gives way to post-war depression, spanning the last years of the Regency to the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901.In it, Ackroyd takes us from the accession of the profligate George IV whose government was steered by Lord Liverpool, who was firmly set against reform, to the reign of his brother, William IV, the ‘Sailor King’, whose reign saw the modernization of the political system and the abolition of slavery. But it was the accession of Queen Victoria, aged only eighteen, 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 across the nation. But though intense industrialization brought boom times for the factory owners, the working classes were still subjected to poor housing, long working hours and dire poverty.It was a time that saw a flowering of great literature, too. As the Georgian era gave way to that of Victoria, readers could delight not only in the work of Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth but also the great nineteenth-century novelists: the Brontë sisters, George Eliot, Mrs Gaskell, Thackeray, and, of course, Dickens, whose work has become synonymous with Victorian England.Nor was Victorian expansionism confined to Britain alone. By the end of Victoria’s reign, the Queen was also an Empress and the British Empire dominated much of the globe. And, as Ackroyd shows in this richly populated, vividly told account, Britannia really did seem to rule the waves.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I look forward to reading and rereading this book. The delivered hardback was in very good shape.

⭐Guns of August, The Proud Tower, others by Barbara Tuchman, are more expansive and more compelling and more comprehensive and more continental. (Not to mention histories by Churchill.) But for the real Brexity, Little Englander, this and other “English histories” by Ackroyd just might satisfy you.

⭐I purchased the whole set and am reading it in order. Can’t wait to get to Victoria.

⭐Peter Ackroyd always has had the knack for writing solid yet very readable popular history. Over the years I’ve enjoyed his books on London and Shakespeare, and the History of England series. Ackroyd has the talent for choosing just the right quotation and just the right amusing or poignant anecdote to illustrate a point.That’s why I feel that he let me down with Dominion: The History of England From the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. This book only covers England during the nineteenth century, but there’s an impression that the author was in a hurry to finish or simply got lazy. There is a scatter-shot quality to the book. Ackroyd could have improved his presentation tremendously if he had used a different organization, maybe dividing the work into multi-chapter, chronological or topical sections.Too much space is devoted to prime ministers and their personalities, and even this more thorough information suffers from disorganization which weakens the book and is somewhat confusing. London’s East End in the late nineteenth century is, for better or worse, strongly identified in the popular mind with the Jack the Ripper case; Ackroyd provides some broader factual information about the East End, and barely mentions these sensational murders in context. Yet he spends a whole chapter on Oscar Wilde. And it’s an account of England in this time period named for its queen, but Victoria is mentioned almost superficially.I would not discourage anyone from reading Ackroyd’s Dominion. He’s a good writer and a competent historian, and Lord knows, we need readable histories that will entice more people to take an interest in history. But I think Dominion is more suited to readers with a bit of familiarity with nineteenth-century England rather than someone coming to its study for the first time.

⭐Dominion is the fifth volume in Peter Ackroyd’s ongoing history of Great Britain. I have read all volumes enjoying Ackroyd’s lively and witty writing style. The book looks at a nation of growing secularity, secularism, Darwinian belief and the rise of the middle class as a force in Victorian society. Queen Victorian reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901. The other rulers in the nineteenth century were George III reigning until 1820; the dissolute George IV the king from 1820-1830 and the sailor king William III from 1830 to 1837. Much of the book deals with parliamentary politics and the major issues of Irish Home Rule, the Corn Laws and extending the voting franchise to Roman Catholics. Various prime ministers and their governments are examined with the most notable of this number being Palmerston, Disraeli, Gladstone, Peel and the Duke of Wellington. The growth of railroads and the Great Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 are also given coverage. A good book for those who enjoy British history.

⭐Spoiler alert: this is NOT a love letter to Queen Victoria. What it is instead is a sprightly (almost conversational) narrative through the 19th century in Britain. My favorite anecdote: The incredible political gamesmanship that resulted in Catholic emancipation, starring an obese, addled King George IV.

⭐Peter Ackroyd is an excellent storyteller and his histories of England are comprehensive and readable.

⭐The writer used a very different approach to telling history, seeming to jump from topic to topic, yet somehow maintain a narrative. It gives the whole a feeling of energy reminiscent of the period. Most of the writing is about politics, but he weaves in enough other stories to keep it interesting.

⭐I have been reading Ackroyd’s work for around quarter of a century, but this volume disappointed me. Normally, I love his style and ability to flip between the macro and micro events of an Age. The tone is set early on in this volume. You will know the scene – Clerkenwell, and Ackroyd is once again at home. The rest of the volume rarely moves outside London, so it is in effect a look at Victorian London (I think we have been there before!). Ackroyd seems to think he is looking at the whole and using London as a case study but rarely do we venture to Northumberland or Devon or anywhere in between. The relationship between England and Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Man or Cornwall is not even considered so it all comes across as one great (but too neat) celebration. We get lots on Lord This and Lord That but the people are low on Ackroyd’s list for discussion. It all feels very safe and a bit of a re-cycle of previous works.

⭐This might just be the era that this particular book covers, but I found the Whig/ Tories politics really tiresome and wearying as a subject matter and this volume is full of it. I would have liked to have read more about the times in which the people lived and society. The writer illustrated very well how little the upper echelons of society cared about the rest of the population which was sad but true- a lot of their lives were totally wretched. I have read the other volumes and loved them- I think the abundance of political events is probably just a reflection of the times. Well written

⭐I have been a Peter Ackroyd fan for years and history is ‘my’ subject. These books are so well written but the publisher should be ashamed of the CHEAP production for the paperback version. I ave nothing against using ecofriendly paper – in fact i’m all for it – but when it means that the illustrations are reproduced in black and white the effect is appalling. The pictures are badly reproduced and when it comes to a map in Vol 5 that is colour-coded then it is even more awful. Add to that, in my copy of Volume ” (and I assume therefore in the whole print run) half the illustrations are missing.Don’t let this put you off buying the books but it is probably worth avoiding the Pan paperback editions!

⭐Sadly I didn’t enjoy this volume of Peter Ackroyd’s History of England anywhere near as much as the previous 4 volumes. The thing that made these stand out from other histories of England was the social, political, literary & economic points of view, how the “man on the street” in various parts of England was affected by events & changes. This volume seemed to focus less on the personal aspects of history & more on London political life. Sad to say, I still haven’t finished it after trying to read it for several months- I’m just not that interested in the dry political history of Victorian England

⭐I’ve been following this volume faithfully, and have enjoyed this series by Peter Ackroyd thus far. Having read the very thorough “The Victorians” by A.N Wilson, I was curious as to what Peter might have to say about this period in our history. Honestly, as another reviewer has stated, the book is rather London based, but to be fair, rather a lot was happening in London at that time. That is not to say that other areas of the country are not sufficiently covered, but it is as though you are being skirted around quite a bit. This is much like taking a “tourist route” through the period, and I felt that just a little more time might have been taken with certain outstanding individuals and events. I won’t go on too much as I don’t want to spoil it for you, but this book is certainly worth the read, and is a worthy edition to the series. I do recommend you read it, as it is generally a good read, and was informative – seeing this period from a different writer’s viewpoint was refreshing in any case. A good edition, but for me it paled somewhat, when compared to the previous engaging and illustrious volumes. Nonetheless, I am eagerly looking forward to the next edition in the series covering the War years…

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