The Peoples of the British Isles: A New History

Volume II: .From 1688 to 1870

Thomas William Heyck, Northwestern University

Preface

The purpose of this book is to tell the story (or rather, stories) of the peoples of the British Isles in the first two centuries of the modern period. It is a great story, full of drama and relevance to the peoples of the former Empire and the United States. The book is meant to be different from the conventional English history textbooks in two ways. First, it covers British and Irish, not just English history. Second, it takes as its central focus the lives of all the peoples of the British Isles, not just those of the political elite. Because England has long been the largest and most powerful country in the British Isles, English history will receive the most coverage. Indeed, one of the main themes of British history in the modern period—that is, since the end of the seventeenth century—has been the expansion of English power and influence within the British Isles. But Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have in the last fifty years or so become the subjects of vital, growing, and fascinating historiographies that demand the attention of students of British history. The histories of the peoples of what came to be called "the Celtic fringe" often had much in common with the history of the English, but at times they diverged sharply. To study comparatively the development of the different societies in the British Isles often throws new light on seemingly well-known events. Moreover, the Welsh, Scots, and Irish were often "problems" for the English, but the English were problems for them as well. To treat the Celtic peoples as mere intrusions into the English story yields not only a deformed historical account of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland but also an incomplete history of the British Isles as a whole. Economic and social history form the backbone of this account. The book thus follows the most exciting trends in recent historiography. When dealing with national politics, the book offers two things: (1) an account of the origin and development of the British state; and (2) analysis of the structure, functions, and impact of the political system as it evolved rather than a detailed narrative. It places "high politics" in the context of the whole way of life of the peoples of the British Isles. The focus, then, throughout is on the lives of "real" people—how they made a living, how they organized their society and institutions, how they related to each other individually and in groups, and how they understood themselves and their world. What was it like to be a farm laborer in the English Midlands in the 1730s or a Highland clansman in the 1760s? How did a handloom weaver experience the advent of steam-powered textile mills? How did middle-class men and women understand class and gender? What were the consequences of famine in Irish society? This book will attend to these kinds of questions.

Each of the historical eras spanned by the years 1688 to 1870 has its own character, its own special mix of economic arrangements, social structure, political style, and cultural expressions. The three parts of the book are meant to mark out for analysis these historical eras—the age of the landed oligarchy; the age of revolutions; and the rise of Victorian society. The flow of historical events is continuous, and certain themes tie the historical eras together. One is the expansion of English influence within the British Isles and the formation under English leader-ship of the multinational British state. Related to that is the development of separate national identities in the Celtic countries. A second theme is the rise of Great Britain to great power status and then its decline to the rank of an ordinary European power. A third is the remarkable economic expansion of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which made Britain the first industrial nation in the world and which has been followed by a long and painful relative economic contraction. Fourth, there is the theme of changing social structure and social relations— the origins and development of class society from the social hierarchy of preindustrial Britain. Finally, there is the theme of the evolving structure of the state and the political system, which involves not only the expansion of the role of the state in the British economy and society but also the development of democratic institutions.

If this book succeeds, it will be by helping students understand the peoples of the British Isles in the early twenty-first century—why they are the way they are. It should also help American students understand themselves and their own society a little better, for the British are enough like the Americans to make comparisons numerous and enough different to make contrasts revealing.

A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY

Because Britain is a multinational state that does not now include all of the peoples of the British Isles, one should be very careful about using labels like "English" and "British." But this is an area in which it is difficult to be perfectly consistent and to avoid irritating nationalist sensibilities. Geographically speaking, "Britain" correctly denotes the whole island composed of England, Wales, and Scotland, but not Ireland. But "Britain" has also been used by people around the world to refer to the United Kingdom, which came to existence only in 1707, which included Ireland from 1801 to 1921, but which today includes only Northern Ireland as well as England, Wales, and Scotland. For much of the nineteenth century, "Britain" meant not only the United Kingdom but also the British Empire. At the same time, many people both within the British Isles and around the world said "England" when they meant "Britain," and by force of habit many people still do. Today, "Britain" technically means "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland," but it would make no sense to apply that usage to any historical period before 1921.

I have done my best to refer to the English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish as the circumstances require, to be careful when speaking of "Britain," and to be accurate in distinguishing the political entity of England from that of Great Britain.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank a number of people for the help they have provided in the writing of this book. First and foremost are all the scholars of modern British and Irish history on whose work this volume depends. They are too numerous to name here, and even the Suggested Readings after each chapter give only a partial indication of my debt to them; but I hope that all will understand how much I appreciate their contributions even where I have given my own twist. I have learned a great deal over the years from Larry McCaffrey of Loyola University, Emmet Larkin of the University of Chicago, and from my colleagues and friends at Northwestern: Lacey Baldwin Smith, Tim Breen, and Harold Perkin. My undergraduate students at Northwestern have played a larger role in this book than they know, and I am grateful to them and to my energetic and resourceful research assistants: Kevin Mahler, Jill Marquis, Helen Harnett, and Suzette Lemrow. Thanks go to the scholars who have read and commented on all or parts of the book: Stewart J. Brown, James Cronin, Stanford Lehmberg, and Standish Meacham. Thanks also go to the reviewers—Nancy Fix Anderson, Loyola University, New Orleans; George L. Bernstein, Tulane University, New Orleans; Anna Clark, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Kimberly K. Estep, Auburn University; Walter R. Johnson, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva; Neil Rabitoy, California State University, Los Angeles; Karl Von den Steinen, California State University, Sacramento; and Meredith Veldman, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge—for their helpful com-mints. David Follmer has been supportive at several stages of the work. Greatest thanks of all go to my wife, Denis Heyck, who willingly helped in countless ways since the inception of this project.