This engaging volume tells the story of how the great political visions and
idealisms of Victorian Britain came to be defeated by a culture of consumerism,
celebrity, and self-gratification. It explains how in each decade, political
leaders found themselves confounded by the British people, who always turned out
to be harder to herd than predicted. Historically Britain has been a country on
the edge—first of invasion, then of bankruptcy, then on the vulnerable front
line of the Cold War, and later in the forefront of the great opening up of
capital and migration. This history follows all the political and economic
stories of the modern era as