'Angus Wilson is one of the most enjoyable novelists of the 20th century... Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956) analyses a wide range of British society in a complicated plot that offers all the pleasures of detective fiction combined with a steady and humane insight.' Margaret Drabble First published in 1956, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes draws upon perhaps the most famous archaeological hoax in history: the 'Piltdown Man', finally exposed in 1953. The novel's protagonist is Gerald Middleton, professor of early medieval history and taciturn creature of habit. Separated from his Swedish wife, Gerald is increasingly conscious of his failings. Moreover, some years ago he was involved in an excavation that led to the discovery of a grotesque idol in the tomb of Bishop Eorpwald. The sole survivor of the original excavation party, Gerald harbours a potentially ruinous secret...

The covers are reproductions of rare bookbindings. Each volume has "Note on the binding ... By Cyril Davenport."

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: EPISODES IN FOREIGN POLICY, 1844-96 T is instructive to note how little, as a rule, nations have to do with the shaping of their own foreign policy; and experience seems to show that this is more often the case under representative institutions than under autocratic rule. Under an autocracy there is no barrier between the monarch anJ the multitude, and in a season of national excitement the Sovereign is thus more amenable to popular pressure than a government resting on a popular basis. A false step by an absolute monarch may involve forfeiture of his throne, possibly of his life and dynasty. A false step by a Cabinet may be ruinous to a nation eventually; but at the moment it appears to involve no more than the fate of a ministry. The responsibility of his action is thus brought more immediately home to the unlimited monarch than to the constitutional minister. If George III. had been an absolute monarch, or Edmund Burke Prime Minister, we should not, in all probability, have lost the American Colonies. But because we had a monarch who was not personally responsible for the policy of his government however much he might influence it, and a stupid Prime Minister who felt that the monarchy was not staked on his. action, we lost the opportunity of being at this moment a nation dominating Europe and America?i.e., the civilised world. So that unless a constitutional minister is a man of great capacity, courage, and disinterested patriotism, he is apt in a national crisis to be more dangerous to his country than an autocrat. And the fact of his being only primus inter pares of a dozen or more colleagues adds to the danger. Unknown to the public, his own wisdom?perchance superior to the collective wisdom of his colleagues?may be overruled in Cabinet council. His only re...

Excerpt from The Anglo-Saxon Review Introductory and periodicals become cheaper and cheaper. To satisfy the loud demand of the enormous and growing reading public, with the minimum of effort, is the modern temptation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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