These are the summaries of the “Where Historians Differ” subchapters of the Frank-Magyarics

Handouts for British History book, which are (supposedly) the main topics of the Lojkó exam.

Historians and other scholars in bold, key stuff underlined. (I don’t actually think the names and dates
of historians will be important). My own comments in italic.

Chapter 1: The British Isles: The Land and the People. From Roman Britain to Norman England

- carbon dating shows that megalithic tombs in Britain were built before the Mediterranean ones, and
are not derived from them
- they ones in Malta, Portugal, Denmark and Britain probably developed independently
- Childe (1940)

- Stonehenge was not only a temple, but an astronomical observatory with practical, religious and
scientific purposes
- monolith alignments at Stonehenge pointed at the rising/setting sun and moon
- calendar + spectacular view (used by priests in rituals)
- Hawkins (1964), astronomer at Smithsonian

- Native Britons were not exterminated by the Anglo-Saxons, just decimated and conquered as
servants
- based on Briton river names still in use in the West

Chapter 2: Domesday England: The Anglo-Norman Times (1066-1154)

- Freeman (1867-79): 6 volumes about the Norman Conquest

- the Conquest didn't really alter the existing Germanic political structure
- Round: pol. structures were significantly changed, and the origins of the new one must be searched
for in the Norman society
- today: there is basic continuity between the Old English and the Anglo-Norman kingdom, but the
Norman duchy influenced it heavily later in the 11th century

Chapter 3: High Medieval England

- Parliament (Latin/French: "a talk")

- from the 1240s: important assembly of the king and nobles to discuss military, financial, judicial,
domestic and foreign matters
- king meeting not only with inner circle of councillors, but with a number of clerical, laymen, and
magnates.
- Parl. under Henry III: "occasion rather than institution"
- Simon de Montfort's Parl. (and Edward I after him): 4 knights from each shire and 2 burgesses from
certain boroughs attended (commoners from towns! - democracy!)
- scholars differ on the importance of Parl. during the reigns of Edward I and II
- enlarged council, high court of justice, or representative assembly
- Parl.'s importance was very wide
- lot of judicial business during this era; representation mostly during discussions about
taxation; and while not a legislative body under Edward I, Parl. meetings were the occasions where
new legislation was announced
- Arnold (1963)
 Chapter 4: The 14th Century: War and Crisis

- do nations profit from war?

- 19th century: they don't
- British historians M. M. Postan and K. B. McFarlane debating the topic: was the Hundred Years' War
profitable?
- impact of the war on English society
- Postan (1942): 100Y War barely relevant in social change
- McFarlane ("20 years later"): French suffered, English profited
- exploitation of occupied French territories
- Postan: "circular tour of wealth"
- war taxes on agriculture -> brought back to the countryside by merchants, soldiers,
officials
- McFarlane: French largely responsible for the expansion of English wealth
- Postan (1961/64): profits couldn't have been high enough
- growth due to the hundred years that passed, and not the war itself

Chapter 5: The Growth of an English National Identity

- emergence of the vernacular English (standard, native form) -> Geoffrey Chaucer: huge influence
- Simeon Potter (1950): Chaucer "sometimes over-estimated"
- 14th century: two languages blending, Chaucer was influental
- he chose to write only in English as opposed to English, French and Latin (as Gower or Milton did)
- George Sampson - Cambridge History of English Literature (1941): "appeal to a larger
audience", "bound to find the best English to write in"
- C. L. Wrenn (1949): "no writer (...) could have much effect on the language as a whole", "it was
inevitable that (Chaucer's) educated London speech (...) became the basis of the modern recieved
standard"
- Chaucer had dominant influence on the tradition and language of English poetry (by
"anglicising" Western European poetic diction)
- R. J. Mitchell and M. D. R. Leys (1950): agree + universities were in the London area (influential by
itself)
- Barbara M. H. Strang ("recent"): London-based standard language due to various social changes,
economical reasons, etc., but NOT Chaucer

Chapter 6: The Tudor Monarchy I: Early Modern England (1485-1558)

- Tudor era once seemed to be the best known period in English history
- A. F. Pollard (19th century) established a picture of a progressive Tudor era, modern in comparison
with the previous Middle Age English rule (humanism, Protestantism)
- Henry VII and VIII: restoration of royal power, Elizabeth I: exploitation of this power
- today: everything uncertain and debated, starting with Pollard's once firm and solid analysis of policy,
govt. and adminstration

- 1530s: changes in the Tudor govt.

- G. R. Elton (1953): "revolutionary"
- England became a sovereign state; king has supreme power
- England replaced medieval with modern, national, bureaucratic administration
- Thomas Cromwell (Oliver's distant relative) wrote the preable to the Act of Appeals
- "England is an Empire"
- no papal jurisdiction
 - statute law over natural or divine law
- King acting through Parliament: limited monarchy
- revolution in administration: Cromwell elevated the position of Secretary to basically right
hand of the King (control over finances, defense, religion, foreign affairs, etc.), established a regular
Privy Council
- modern, bureaucratic administration less dependent on the King
- G. L. Harriss and Henry Williams: "exaggerated"
- papal power was already limited
- Parliament already had legislative power
- office of Secretary declined after Cromwell
- Elizabetians had to restore the administration
- Elton concedes that he had exaggerated
- it's true that:
- profound changes happened under Cromwell
- it wasn't revolutionary, but a decisive step in the evolution of administration

Chapter 7: The Tudor Monarchy II: Elizabethan England (1558-1603)

- Neale: analysis of the Elizabethian lower house of Parl.

- no "Tudor despotism"
- "storm over the gentry" (gentry: lesser nobility)
- real causes of the Civil War?
- Tawney: rise of the gentry at the expense of aristocracy and the Crown
- Stone: rise of the gentry and the"decline" of aristocracy and the Crown
- Trevor and Roper: that's wrong
- couldn't defend their argument of a rising "court" gentry and declining "country"
gentry
- Stone: big book on aristocracy and Parl.
- couldn't prove that the nobility was socially and economically troubled
- in conclusion:
- no distinction can be made between the gentry and the aristocracy
- the Civil War was not the outcome of economical or social problems

Chapter 8: Early Stuart England: The Road to the English Revolution (1603-1640)

- was Cromwell's revolution an essentially puritan revolution?

- Christopher Hill: rev. closely connected with the socio-religious movement of puritanism
- strict Calvinism -> class struggle in the clergy and outside of it
- very Marxist-ish interpretation
- Perez Zagorin: Hill is wrong, tries to shoehorn Marxist class conflict ideology into the Civil War
- "The Georges": no fundamental difference between Anglican and puritan intellectual attitudes
- Micheal Waltzer: puritan writings did have kind of a revolutionary touch, so there is some truth in
Hill's theory

Chapter 9: Conflict and Civil War: The English Revolution (1640-1660)

- social origins of the Civil War debated

- D. Brunton and D. H. Pennington + Mary Frear Keeler: biographies of the members of the "Long
Parliament" in the first two years
- Steven D. Anthler: modern statistical analysis of the biographical data -> economic mobility (getting
poorer or richer) of MPs before and during the Civil War; connection to political affiliation?
 - analysis of ten factors: status, occupation, religion, political affiliation, wealth, etc.
- turns out that those who were parliamentarians, and involved in the War and county politics,
became richer, the royalists and less active became poorer
- R. S. Schofield: Anthler is wrong, there isn't necessarily a causal relationship between political
affiliation and economic mobility

Chapter 10: Restoration England (1660-1688)

- upper-class marriage practices in the 17th century

- Miriam Slater: arranged marriages for financial advantage + "advancement through the kin network"
(social capital I guess?) -> no romantic ideals, but still resulted in a solid family
- Sarah Heller Mendelson: Slater used a small sample and exaggerated the financial motives in the
arranged marriages
- agrees that 17th century parents were "anti-romantic", against passionate love, but the youth
fought against these ideals
- marriages for monetary reasons were looked down upon in the era of the restoration
- Slater: marriages to preserve property accumulation
- families also served as credit institutions, levers of political power, they had the final say in
educational or professional advancement, they brokered marriages, etc.
- secret love and marriages among the youth: against norms and expectations, rare
- some counter-examples won't explain how arranged marriages were ultimately replaced by
the decisions of the individuals

Chapter 11: The Rise of Great Britain (1689-1714)

- the importance of parties in politics (under Queen Anne)

- Walcott: analysis of factions and groupings
- Horwitz: criticism of Walcott
- Plumb: also criticises Walcott
- demonstrates that English politics moved from a turbulent party-dominated era to
a more peaceful one without parties
- Rubini: distinction between court and country politics was better than the Whig-Tory
distinction
- Holmes: (under Anne) party with an active and central position
- Elton: "not persuaded"
- genuine and coherent parties existed before 1714, but did not determine the making of
administrations

Chapter 12: Augustan England (1714-1760)

- Namier (1929): Whigs and Tories in the 18th century

- until his death, his views have been widely accepted
- (no idea what his views were. F-M cut them out or Elton just thought that it was
common knowledge –probably that parties at the time were mostly weak and irrelevant)
- still respected nowadays
- Elton: "(parties) had nothing to do with the formation of administrations" until the early 19th century
- Namier "underestimated the degree to which loyality, opinion and ideology could hold part
of the house together"
- important: at this point there were a lot of MPs not belonging to any parties
 Chapter 13: The More Than Industrial" Revolution

- debate about the Industrial Revolution

- Ashton (1950s?): influental summary
- causes of the Revolution: accumulation of capital, changes in the rate of interest (if you take
a loan, how much interest do you have to pay back in a given time, compared to the amount of the
loan), activities of new banks -> availability of money
- Pollard: only a small amount of capital was needed for the industrial expansion
- Joslin and Presnell: they didn't have the banking system needed for Ashton's theory at the time
- Presnell: criticized Ashton's interpretation of the changing interest rates

- effects of industrialisation living standard of the working class

- early view: standards went downhill, life was worse for the industrial workers
- Clapham, Ashton, Taylor attacked this
- Taylor: life generally got better with the industrialisation
- debate between Hartwell (ind. was good) and Hobsbawm (ind. was bad)
- new view (ind. was good) is right in the numbers, but life can't just be explained by cold hard statistics

Honestly, I didn't really understand some parts of this chapter, because, as usual, Elton believes that
proper academic writing is done by abusing the thesaurus and having pointlessly complex sentence
structures. Thankfully, his books were only selected for the WHDs in every second chapter...

Chapter 14: Wars with France (1793-1815)

- 18th century: the dawn of proper diplomacy

- Napoleonic Wars: diplomatic problems
- Helleiner: Pitt's (Prime Minister) loans to Austria to keep them in the war
- Sherwig: Pitt's loans are mostly legend, only in the last two years of the war
- Western and Glover studied the land army reforms
- 3 naval warfare regions studied: Mediterranean (Mackesy), Baltic (Ryan), Indian Ocean (Parkinson)

Chapter 15: A Century of Reform Bills

- the real effect of the first Reform Bill (voting power redistributed from barely populated rural areas
to new industrial cities and towns)
- Gash shows how little things have changed
- Church and State relations remained "surprisingly important"
- second half of the 19th century reforms regarding the lives of the poor finally began
- second Reform Bill (voting rights to working class; 1mil->7mil voters in 2 years!): "highly complex
story"
- Smith: straight account
- Cowling: very detailed method to present the inner circle of politicians were involved
- Himmelfarb: tries to show ("not very successfully") how the Bill was based on "high
principles"

Chapter 16: Britain and the World I: The British Empire

- problem of imperial expansion similar to foreign policies for England

- century divided into two parts: 1. years without conscious positive notion of imperialism 2. years
with it
- Fieldhouse (1973) doubts this European expansion was driven by the search for profit and a crisis in
the capital system (view widely held, especially by Lenin)
- Stokes (1969) argues Lenin never held this view even though it’s characteristic of Leninism
- Robinson & Gallagher (1961) have a very different view, purely political motives directly derived
from the problem of a European balance of power
- Elton
- the empire rested on its navy power and army
- its costs forced a choice between imperial and social ends
- Platt (1968)
- no consensus can be expected on the causes of imperialism
- explanations of New Imperialism fell into a general pattern, primarily explained as a political
phenomenon
- Hobson (1902) argued that underconsumption created a need for outlets for European
manufactured goods
- more importantly for European capital which lay at the basis of late-Victorian
Imperialism
- industrialization and new mechanical processes increased production so much that supply
outstripped demand and converted friendly completion into cut-throat hostility

Chapter 17: Britain and the World II: Foreign Policy in the 19th Century

- Elton: 19th century diplomatic history has been an established disciple in the English historical canon
but new stirrings have been noticeable
- the fact that foreign policy is not all diplomacy is beginning to leave its marks on scholars
- Platt (1968) attempts a case study surveying interaction of policy and trade from Egypt to
Chile
- traditional methods still dominate this field, mostly because opening the archives required
initial sorting out of the basic diplomatic story
- Taylor (1957): leading historian of the field, indifferent towards economic problems
- most specialists still treat diplomacy as self-sufficient -> traditional approach

Chapter 18: "Two Nations:" The Social Scene of Victorian Britain

The first two paragraphs in this chapter ("I" and "II") are basically lists of history books to read if you're
interested in one aspect or another. There's no debate here, just a bunch of various books: "I" is about
the Chartist movement, "II" is about documents of the Home Office, early democratic and radical
history, and 19th century Britsh society.

Photo turned out to be blurry, here's the article for "III": http://www.jstor.org/stable/650946

- Brundage and Mandler agree that the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act ("New Poor Law": poor but
able-bodied workers should seek employment and not charity) served the landlords and the country
gentry, but Mandler misinterprets Brundage's ideas
- Mandler doesn't think the New Poor Law is paternalistic (restricting the rights of a person or
group for your own benefit)
- is the New Poor Law the beginning or the product of the new modernised gentry ideology?
- Mandler: very narrow definition of paternalism; Brundage prefers Roberts' defintion:
"characteristic of all segments of upper-class society"

Article for "IV": https://www.jstor.org/stable/649733

- Briggs: volume of Chartist (19th century working-class political reform movement) studies
- great variation within the Chartist movement
- nothing on the London Chartism though
- Prothero: London Chartism: two "traditions" ("Lovett" and "Harney")
- Lovett: from William Lovett's autobiography, addresses and records of the Working Men's
Association, and papers of Francis Place who shared his attitude
- prejudiced views: attacking O'Connor (main Chartist leader), unaware of conditions
outside London, and viewing Chartism as something started by the Working Men's Association, but
ruined by demagogues and revolutionaries.
- Harney: writings of George Julian Harney and his East London Democratic Association

Chapter 19: Conservatives vs Liberals: Victorian Party Politics

- one of the most important developments of the 19th century is the emergence of modern political
parties
- (first half of the paragraph is "book club": no debateable topics, just a list of a bunch of history books
about the different aspects of the start of the party politics)
- the structure of Disraeli's Tory party:
- Paul Smith: no serious concern with reform
- E. J. Feuchtwanger: "claims made at elections had a better foundation"
- Liberalism:
- John R. Vincent: foundation of the liberal party
- dispels some legends about its foundation on principle, morality, and religion
- McGill and Tholfsen: liberal party organisation
- Peter Stansky: how the party failed after the disappearance of Gladstone and the battles for
succession in leadership

Chapter 20: The Nationality Problem In Modern Britain

- Tony Chater: Race Relations in Britain (1966)

-detailed information about immigration to Britain between 1951 and 1964
-origins of racism and racialist myths
-Commonwealth Act: Commonwealth workers need a Ministry of Labour voucher to work in Britain
-Labour Government -> the number of admitted voucher holders is gradually reduced
-All those who came: in Cat. A (a job which cannot be filled in Britain) or Cat. B (special
skills)
-no Cat. C workers -> workers who could take unskilled or semi-skilled occupations
when shortage of labour were exluded
-More emigrants than immigrants (800000 more, 1946-1964)

Chapter 21: The Workshop of the World: The Growth of the British Economy in the 19th Century

- first paragraph is book club again with no contentious points. important parts: Rostow's The British
Economy of the 19th Century (1948) is very influential, and G. Sidney Checkland provides a "learned
explanation of the complications of economic development"

-Rostow: The British Economy of the 19th Century (1948)

- attempt of a sustained dynamic analysis
-interpretation: “in terms of the shifting balance between the productive and unproductive outlays;
and among types of different outlays with differing fields and different periods of gestation”
- four periods:
 -1815-1847: intensive home investment
-1848-1873: investment outlays in wars or long term in their economic effects
-1873-1898: home investment again
-1898-1914: capital was invested abroad rather than at home
- Great Depression: not marked in this division, but it should be, as a transition between two periods

Chapter 22: Britain In World War I

- first paragraph is book club again. Marder and Siney: naval warfare; Guinn: close links between
fighting in the various theatres of war and domestic politics, Moorehead: good account on the Gallipoli
campaign

-Fritz Fischer:aim of Imperial German foreign policy: the achievement of world power status through
continental hegemony
- Gerhard Ritter: biggest critic of Fischer’s treatment of pre-war policy and the men who made it
- fails to refute Fischer’s claim that during the war Germany succumbed to a collective
megalomania which expressed itself in utterly unrealistic war aims
- succeeds at challenging Fischer’s contention that the war aims were merely reflections of
attitudes and aspirations current in Germany in 1914 which prompted German leaders to risk a major
war

Chapter 23: Britain Between the Wars (1919-1939)

- A. J. P. Taylor: English History, 1914-1945

-serious failure to treat matters economic or scientific, but assisted with the author’s own
prejudices and scepticism
- Charles C. Mowat: Britain between the Wars, 1918-1940
-balanced approach, with skillful treatment of crucial socio-economic problems
- W. N. Medlicott: Contemporary England, 1914-1964
-more conventional, but careful and useful book
-succeeds in applying a historical stance to the author’s own timeline
- Alfred F. Havighurst: Twentieth Century Britain
-plain, thorough, sympathetic handling of the period
- F. G. Northedge: The Troubled Giant: Britain among the Great Powers, 1916-1939
-tries to juxtapose the realities and the myths of British world power between the wars
- A. Philip Reynolds: British Foreign Policy in the Inter-War Years
-originally intended for 6th forms in schools less ambitious, less useful
- Henry R. Wrinkler: The League of Nations Movement in Great Britain, 1914-1919
-investigates various proposals for an international organization after World War I
- Gilbert and Gott: The Appeasers
-the crises of the Hitler era
-somewhat one-sided, but readable

- E. G. Hobsbawn
- Robert Blake (Bonar Law), Beaverbrook (Men and Power) -> the politics of the Conservatives
now are well known, as opposed to the Labour Party, especially the politics of the T. U. C. (Trades
Union Congress)

- Henry Pelling:
-Taylor devoted too much of his book to the development of the power of the state
 - main weakness: unwillingness to allow for the strength of social and political sources outside
Whitehall and Westminster

Chapter 24: The Origins of World War II: British Foreign Policy In the 1930s

- G. R. Elton:
- Mary Antonia Walker: Anschluss -> covered in a doctoral dissertation
- Munich: an active issue -> John W. Wheeler-Bennett: the most readable chronicler. Preface
to the 2nd edition reviews recent literature
- Keith Robbins: attempt to treat the matter dispassionately -> detached
- Sir Nevile Henderson: most incredible actor in the business

- T. W. Mason:
- A. J. P. Taylor: his book has little to do with Hitler
- most important question: France and Great Britain, the decision makers and victors of WWI
-> Initiatives came from these countries -> outbreak of WWII “Schuschnigg”
- Munich settlement <- “British making”

Chapter 25: Britain in World War II

- G. R. Elton
- Taylor’s attempt: prove that Hitler did not want war, GB forced it on him
- Churchill: personal history (The Second World War)
- deserves pride of place -> best complete account of the event

Chapter 26: Post-War Britain I: The Welfare State

- Tories, right-wing Labour leaders made Britain a “welfare state”

- phrase is used differently:
- Labour leaders: bolster up the fallacy that capitalism has changed, class war is over
- Tories: according to circumstances - to catch votes, premise: under the welfare state too
much is being done for the people
- The Welfare State Rt. Hon, Enoch Powell, Minister of Health at the Tory Party Conference in 1961.
Some social services: excessive for some purposes while there will be inadequate ones for others.
- Audrey Harvey: Causalities of the Welfare State
- info from the human angle
- problems: mostly from housing situation
- For those who believe in principle society: Room at the Bottom
- Tory outlook - described by Katherina Hood: Marxism Today 1961.
- 40 years ago: war strengthened demands for a more just and generous social order
- Beveridge Report: “five giant evils to be destroyed”: Want, Disease. Ignorance, Squalor, Idleness
- Butler, Beveridge, Bevan- Conservative, Liberal, Socialist: 3 Pillars of the Welfare State: Education
Act, National Insurance Act, National Health-Service Act
- consensus: subjected to damaging assaults
1.) repeatedly demonstrated: middle classes do very well out of the Welfare State
2.) the Welfare State has failed to eliminate many of the problems—primary poverty persisted
throughout the 1960s (esp. one parent families)
3.) the Welfare State has imposed enormous burdens on the economy
4.) the complexity of the Welfare system has led to widespread dissatisfaction. Barbara Wooflon:
“Giant Complexity” – should be added to the 5 Giant Evils
5.) right-wing economics suggested: competitive market- would be more effective. Provision of “free”
welfare services: denies citizens the freedom of choice they enjoy in the competitive market
6.) American neo-conservatives: argued that the Welfare State is positively counterproductive

Chapter 27: Post-War Britain II: The Emergence of Neo-Conservatism

- Fundamental task in British politics: the defeat of the Thatcher government

- most dangerous in 20th century Britain
- cannot do any more irreversible damage
- Thatcher govt. - minority govt. In the past: 50% was against, now 2/3
- Thatcher govt. could not have been elected - but for the divisions of the oppositions
- Labour Party - unlikely to win on its own and to form a single-handed govt.

Huge thanks to JL, KV and TR.