The Long Eighteenth Century

Reviews / Votes

[O'Gorman's] comprehensive survey of the field should become required reading. * English Historical Review, of the first edition * A welcome overview that should be useful to upper-division undergraduates. * Choice, of the first edition * Frank O'Gorman is the judicious maestro of eighteenth-century British history, who is equally at home with the big picture and with the telling detail. Read this updated edition of his invaluable social and political history to understand the great trends of change and the countervailing forces of inertia. Read it too for fine-grain assessments, like his careful analysis of rival English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish nationalisms within an emergent 'bullish' Britishness. And read it, above all, for O'Gorman's panoramic linkage of the global and the local: very much in the spirit of the eighteenth century. * Penelope J. Corfield, Royal Holloway, University of London * Frank O'Gorman should be congratulated for updating The Long Eighteenth Century. This general survey of British history between the Revolution of 1688 and the Great Reform Act of 1832 is a model of its kind: it is sensitive to detail, while comprehensive in its scope; and it effectively combines insightful and judicious analysis of social and cultural change with well-paced political narratives. All serious students of Britain in the long eighteenth century must read it; but it deserves the attention of general readers too. There is value on every page. * David Lemmings, University of Adelaide, Australia * No single volume has done more to expand the limits of British history than The Long Eighteenth Century. Stretching from the Glorious Revolution to the Great Reform Bill and from Britain's own shores to Europe, India and America, Frank O'Gorman's capacious history has been a classic since it first appeared nearly two decades ago. Updated to reflect the latest scholarship, the revised edition is a must-read for general and academic readers alike. * Eliga Gould, University of New Hampshire, USA *