At the outset of 1870, the British Aristocracy could rightly consider them the most fortunate people on earth. They held the lion’s share of land, wealth, and power in the world’s greatest Empire. However, by the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige and political significance.
Deftly orchestrating an enormous array of documents and letters, facts and statistics, David Cannadine shows how this shift came about- and how it was reinforced in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Astonishingly learned, lucidly written and sparkling with wit, THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH ARISTOCRACY is a landmark study that dramatically changes our understanding of British social history. The author recounts the process by which the notables and nobles lost their wealth, power and prestige, describing, for example, the political assault mounted by Lloyd George, the terrible human cost exacted by the First World War, the breakup of great landed estates in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and the erosion of the traditional system of titles and honours.
The result is not only a compelling account of one of the most significant changes to have occurred in modern British history: it is also a riveting human drama, sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic, invariably fascinating.
Cannadine shows how the aristocracy tried to cope with the tide of events that led to their decline. They made careers for themselves as shareholders or heiress-hunters, novelists or Kenya adventurers, ornamental directors or successful businessmen. They fought valiantly and vainly to protect the House of Lords, the Church of England, the agricultural economy, and the union with Ireland. In desperate moments they flirted with more extreme forms of political behaviour, ranging from the Die Hards of the 1900s to the fascism of Sir Oswald Mosley.
Only since the Second World War, says Cannadine has the aristocracy finally retreated to the margins of British politics, British society, British life and British history. On painting this colourful panorama, Cannadine recreates the vanishing world of the aristocracy in all its exuberant diversity. The reshaping of taxation policies and inheritance laws saw the once dominant class’s foundations erode relinquishing both property and influence making a definitive step in the long decline of the British aristocracy.
Along the way, the author gives us masterly vignettes of an astonishing range of characters such as Wilfrid Seawen Blunt, Lord Curzon, the Milford sisters, Lord Erroll and Lord Longford. He places the careers of such families names as Lord Salisbury, Winston Churchill, Lord Home and Lord Carrington in a new and significant
perspective. He also helps us understand the wide range of fictional aristocrats from Hulaire Belloc’s Lord Lundy to Edger Rice Burrows Tarzan. Written with the style, verve and wit, the book is handsomely illustrated. It’s a keepsake.
The creation of the National Trust in 1895 protected the nation’s heritage by providing a mechanism by which aristocratic families could transfer ownership of their estates while continuing to reside in them, alleviating the financial burden imposed by taxes.
David Cannadine, is a British author who is a ‘Sir’, specialises in modern history and in this monumental work does more than chronicle an end of an era: his book encapsulates the seismic shifts in British society. It is certainly a deep dive into a world of opulence and downfall.
