Victorious Century: The United Kingdom, 1800-1906 (The Penguin History of Britain) Hardcover – February 20, 2018 by David Cannadine (Allen Lane/ Viking/ Penguin Books)

Rule Britannia! This book is the ninth in the Penguin History of Great Britain series. The author is Dr. David Cannadine a British scholar who is currently teaching at Princeton. The author begins his long account with the Union of England, Scotland and Wales in the dawn of the nineteenth century. This century was the greatest in the history of the British Empire. Among the accomplishments of these island people were:
a. The vast extension of the British Empire and the settlement of New Zealand,. Australia, Canada, the West Indies and the establishment of British rule in the vast subcontinent nation of India.
b. The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 leaving Great Britain as the greatest European power. Heroes such as Wellington the Iron Duke and Lord Nelson emerged from the long conflict with France from 1783 to 1815 (discounting the short lived Peace of Amiens in 1802)
c. Much of the book is taken up with intricate details of party battles in the House of Commons between Whigs, Tories and Liberals. The political stars of the century were Disraeli the Conservative Tory and William Gladstone the great liberal leader.
d. Incomes and standard of living improved but their was still widespread poverty, disease and social unrest in the land. Long sections of the book deal with the repeal of the Corn Laws and the Charter agitation for better wages and voting rights for common people.
e. Home rule for Ireland and the Irish potato family of the hungry 1840s caused much pain and suffering for everyone from politicians in London to starving children in Ireland.
f. A century of religious conflict. Growing division between doubt and belief with the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.
g. A literary flowering of the novel and poetry. Great novelists such as Dickens, Eliot, Trollope, the Brontes, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins and Jane Austen published their works,. Poetry is led by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, Byron and later Tennyson and Matthew Arnold.
h. The century began with George III on the Throne followed by George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria who reigned from 1837-1801
I. Slavery is ended in the British Empire
j. Wars included the War of 1814 vs. the United Sates, Opium Wars in China, conflict in Afghanistan, The Crimean War, the Boer War and several colonial conflicts.
This just hits the highlights of this very detailed history book! I enjoyed the chapter on the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the progress in many areas made by the British nation. Well done by an outstanding historian!