Background
Dangerfield, George was born on October 28, 1904 in Newbury, Berkshire, England. Son of George and Ethel Margaret (Tyrer) Dangerfield. came to the United States, 1930, naturalized, 1943.
( At the beginning of the twentieth century England's emp...)
At the beginning of the twentieth century England's empire spanned the globe, its economy was strong, and its political system seemed immune to the ills that inflicted so many other countries. After a resounding electoral triumph in 1906, the Liberals formed the government of the most powerful nation on earth, yet within a few years the House of Lords lost its absolute veto over legislation, the Home Rule crisis brought Ireland to the brink of civil war and led to an army mutiny, the campaign for woman's suffrage created widespread civil disorder and discredited the legal and penal systems, and an unprecedented wave of strikes swept the land. This is a classic account, first published in 1935, of the dramatic upheaval and political change that overwhelmed England in the period 1910-1914. Few books of history retain their relevance and vitality after more than sixty years. The Strange Death of Liberal England is one of the most important books of the English past, a prime example that history can be abiding literature. As a portrait of England enmeshed in the turbulence of new movements, which often led to violence against the pieties of Liberal England—until it was overwhelmed by the greatest violence of all, World War I—this extraordinary book has continued to exert a powerful influence on the way historians have observed early twentieth-century England.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804729301/?tag=2022091-20
(A felicitous and fresh retelling of the story of the emer...)
A felicitous and fresh retelling of the story of the emergence of American nationalism! By any criteria the years following the Peace of Ghent, a period inaugurated by what has been superficially called "the era of good feelings," must be considered a time of exceptional growth and development in the United States. Above all, it may be considered a time of the evolution and ripening of American nationalism. It is the special virtue of Dangerfield's brilliant synthesis of the period that he manages to keep the focus on this central theme—the contest between the economic nationalism expounded by Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams and the democratic nationalism exemplified by the partisans of Andrew Jackson. That he does so without neglecting America's role in world affairs and particularly the growing economic rivalry with Great Britain, nor without minimizing the parts played by the leading actors on the national stage, attests the balanced judgment and sense of proportion that are evident throughout the volume. It is the confrontation of American economic nationalism with the Liberal Toryism of Lord Liverpool and William Huskisson that this book delineates with exceptional brilliance and depth. Dangerfield, a master craftsman, skillfully weaves many different threads into one magnificent tapestry. Title of related interest from Waveland Press: Smelser, The Democratic Republic, 1801–1815 (ISBN 9780881336689).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881338230/?tag=2022091-20
( This book focuses on the chaos that overtook England o...)
This book focuses on the chaos that overtook England on the eve of the First World War. Dangerfield weaves together the three wild strands of the Irish Rebellion (the rebellion in Ulster), the Suffragette Movement and the Labour Movement to produce a vital picture of the state of mind and the most pressing social problems in England at the time. The country was preparing even then for its entrance into the twentieth century and total war. Dangerfield argues that between the death of Edward VII and the First World War there was a considerable hiatus in English history. He states that 1910 was a landmark year in English history. In 1910 the English spirit flared up, so that by the end of 1913 Liberal England was reduced to ashes. From these ashes, a new England emerged in which the true prewar Liberalism was supported by free trade, a majority in Parliament, the Ten Commandments, but the illusion of progress vanished. That extravagant behavior of the postwar decade, Dangerfield notes, had begun before the war. The war hastened everything—in politics, in economics, in behavior—but it started nothing. George Dangerfield’s wonderfully written 1935 book has been extraordinarily influential. Scarcely any important analyst of modern Britain has failed to cite it and to make use of the understanding Dangerfield provides. This edition is timely, since the year 2010 has seen a definitive resurrection of Liberal power. Subsequent to the General Election of July 2010 the government of the United Kingdom has been in the hands of a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition. The Deputy Prime Minister is the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party—the direct successor of the old Liberal Party examined by Dangerfield. Five Liberal Democrat members of Parliament were appointed to the Cabinet and there are Liberal Democrat ministers in all governmental departments. After decades of absence from government power, Liberalism seems to be back with a vengeance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412842158/?tag=2022091-20
(Here is history as delightful as it is profound. Explorin...)
Here is history as delightful as it is profound. Exploring the period between Jeffersonian democracy and Jacksonian democracy, George Dangerfield describes the personalities and experiences, American and European, which furthered the political transition "from the great dictum that central government is best when it governs least to the great dictum that central government must sometimes intervene strongly on behalf of the weak and the oppressed and the exploited." The book, winner of the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes, throws new and fresh light on an important formative period in American history. "An agile piece of historical writing―witty, selective, and illuminating."―New Yorker. "George Dangerfield writes with gusto, sense, and authority. His agreeable, eloquent book is full of people, conflicts, ideas, and color. It is a learned book, and witty and skillful; on every page it is thoughtful, clever, and original."―Saturday Review. "History exploded with mature perception, pointed anecdote, and lively interpretation."―New York Times.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0929587146/?tag=2022091-20
(Ireland holds fiercely to her identity. Starting with the...)
Ireland holds fiercely to her identity. Starting with the Act of Union in the 1800s, historian George Dangerfield dives into the "Irish Question." Dealing with such events as the Easter Rising and the famine, The Damnable Question explains Ireland's intense patriotism even after so many people immigrated to the United States
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0760713502/?tag=2022091-20
Dangerfield, George was born on October 28, 1904 in Newbury, Berkshire, England. Son of George and Ethel Margaret (Tyrer) Dangerfield. came to the United States, 1930, naturalized, 1943.
Student, Forest School, Walthamstow, Essex, England, 1916-1922; Bachelor of Arts, Hertford College, University of Oxford, 1927; Master of Arts, University of Oxford, 1968.
His first memory, he wrote in his thirties, was "of being held up to a window and shown Halley"s Comet" in 1910. In 1927 he received his Bachelor of Arts from Hertford College, Oxford. In 1930 he moved to the United States, married Mary Lou Schott in 1941, and became an American citizen in 1943.
Dangerfield"s The Strange of Liberal England was not given much attention by academic historians when it first appeared in 1935, but has gained admirers over the years because of its lively style and trenchant analysis.
lieutenant remains one of the best accounts of the failure of the Liberals to deal effectively with increasingly vehement demands from Ulster Unionists, industrial workers, and suffragettes. In 1941 Dangerfield published a work on the early life of Edward VII, Victoria"s Heir: The Education of a Prince.
A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970 allowed Dangerfield to return to Europe for research. He died of leukemia in Santa Barbara, California, where he had taught for a few years at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"If the novel can go to history, history can go to the novel, at least to the extent of bringing a creative imagination to bear upon its characters.
History, which reconciles incompatibles, and balances probabilities, by its very nature eventually reaches the reality of fiction. And that is the highest reality of all."
"When codes, when religions, when ideas cease to move forward, it is always in some shining illusion that an alarmed humanity attempts to take refuge." --The Strange of Liberal England, 343 (Stanford University Press ed, 1997).
(A felicitous and fresh retelling of the story of the emer...)
(A felicitous and fresh retelling of the story of the emer...)
( At the beginning of the twentieth century England's emp...)
(Defiance to the Old World: The Story Behind the Monroe Do...)
( This book focuses on the chaos that overtook England o...)
(Political Science, British History, International Affairs)
(One Hundred and Twenty Years of Anglo-Irish Conflict)
(Here is history as delightful as it is profound. Explorin...)
(Ireland holds fiercely to her identity. Starting with the...)
(the history of the Irish and England)
(Beautiful leather bond edition.)
(book)
Quotations:
"If the novel can go to history, history can go to the novel, at least to the extent of bringing a creative imagination to bear upon its characters. History, which reconciles incompatibles, and balances probabilities, by its very nature eventually reaches the reality of fiction. And that is the highest reality of all."
"When codes, when religions, when ideas cease to move forward, it is always in some shining illusion that an alarmed humanity attempts to take refuge." --The Strange of Liberal England, 343 (Stanford University Press ed, 1997).
Served 102d infantry division Army of the United States, 1942-1945. Fellow Society of America Historians. Member Common Cause, American Civil Liberties Union, Friends of Montecito Public Library, American Antiquarian Society.
Married Helen Mary Deey Spedding, June 28, 1928. Married Mary Lou Schott, June 29, 1941. Children: Mary Jo, Hilary, Anthony.