Includes essays on Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, George Orwell, 1984, Mountbatten, Winston Churchill, among others.

Collecting the interpretations of outstanding writers on the literature and history of modern Britain, this book deals with a rich variety of themes, some familiar, many unexpected, taking the reader on a highly engaging excursion through British life and intellectual biography. The scope includes not only the personalities, politics, and culture of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, but also the interaction of British and other societies throughout the world.

Here is a colorful collection of writings by well known scholars and critics on modern Britain's literature and history. From British personalities, politics, and culture, to Britain's interaction with other societies, the subjects are wide-ranging and sometimes surprising. Niall Ferguson examines the origins of the first World War; Avi Shlaim reasseses the Balfour Declaration; Geoffrey Wheatcroft writes about Evelyn Waugh; David Cannadine revisits C.P. Snow's Two Cultures; and much more.

Effervescent Adventures with Britannia is the latest addition to Wm Roger Louis's stimulating and acclaimed series, Adventures with Britannia. It draws upon a distinguished array of writers and scholars - historians, political scientists, journalists, novelists, biographers and English literature specialists - to guide the reader through a fascinating labyrinth of British culture, history and politics. Together, they provide a unique insight into the pivotal themes - political, literary and cultural - which have shaped British state and society. The subjects covered include a new analysis of Jack the Ripper by Richard Davenport-Hines, a new appraisal of Harold Nicholson and Royal Biography by Jane Ridley and a new account of Evelyn Waugh in North America by Martin Stannard. In literature, Patrick French writes on V.S. Naipul; in history Andrew Lownie offers new perspectives on Guy Burgess and in politics Kenneth O. Morgan considers what will become of Britain after Brexit. Collectively, the chapters combine a rich mix of original ideas, historical and literary allusion, personality and anecdote, to provide an intellectual adventure into the mainsprings of modern British and international society.

For twenty years, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin has sponsored a British Studies seminar. The scope includes not only the personalities, politics, and culture of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland but also the interaction of British and other societies throughout the world. This book consists of a representative selection of lectures given to the seminar. Contents Albert Hourani (Oxford University), The Myth of T. E. Lawrence Hilary Spurling (Critic and Biographer), Paul Scott: Novelist and Historian Robert Blake (Oxford University), Winston Churchill as Historian Oliver Franks (Oxford University), The "Special Relationship," 1948-1952 M. R. D. Foot, Open and Secret War, 1938-1945 Donald Cameron Watt (London School of Economics), Personalities and Appeasement Alan Ryan (Princeton University), Bertrand Russell's Politics: 1688 or 1968? Joseph Hamburger (Yale University), How Liberal Was John Stuart Mill? Diane Kunz (Yale University), Post-War British Sterling Crises Adolf Wood, The Lure of the TLS Sarvepalli Gopal (Jawaharlal Nehru University), "Drinking Tea with Treason": Halifax in India Derek Brewer (Cambridge University), The Interpretation of Fairy Tales: Implications for Literature, History, and Anthropology William H. McNeill (University of Chicago), Toynbee Revisited Robert Skidelsky (University of Warwick), Keynes and the United States Ian MacKillop (Sheffield University), F. R. Leavis and the "Anthropologico-Literary" Group: We Were That Cambridge Field Marshall Michael Carver, Wavell and the War in the Middle East, 1940-1941 Michael Howard (Yale University), Reflections on Strategic Deception Jeremy Lewis (Critic andNovelist), Who Cares about Cyril Connolly? R. A. C. Parker (Oxford University), Chamberlain and Appeasement Alan Knight (Oxford University), British Attitudes towards the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1940 Kenneth O. Morgan (University of Wales), Welsh Nationalism

In terms of the Second World War and Britain's wartime strategy three elements deserve close scrutiny: the paramount importance of defending the British mainland and its population; the challenges of building and maintaining coalitions and alliances; and the central role the African continent assumed in all British strategic planning. A concluding essay reflects upon the degree to which in the face of an often uncertain and unconvincing approach these critical themes underpinned the British experience of the conflict. Topics addressed include 1940 and the Defence of Britain; relations with the United States; the British Empire Air Training Plan; General (Boy) Browning and Operation Market Garden; the recall of General Alan Cunningham from Libya in 1941; plans for defending the Royal Family; Exercise Genesis, which turned west London into a battleground for a day in May 1942; and the role of the Eastern Fleet off Africa. Andrew Stewart provides a compelling chapter on the loss of the Tobruk garrison in June 1942 -- one of the worst military disasters suffered by the British Empire during the Second World War. The essay on Tobruk demonstrates how all three defining elements of wartime experience converged: the loss of public confidence about how the war was being conducted; its impact on the relationship with the Union of South Africa, a key partner in the Dominion wartime coalition; and the absolute necessity that existed for deep strategic planning on the African continent -- subsequently to be realised at the final battle at El Alamein.

These stimulating essays reassess the meaning of British imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are written by leading authorities in the field and range in scope from the aftermath of the American revolution to the liquidation of the British empire, from the Caribean to the Pacific, from Suez to Hong Kong.