'Social history is at last ceasing to be the Cinderella of scholarship, and these fine volumes will do much to help raise it to its rightful place in the palace of academe. Uniformly lucid and erudite, Professor Thompson's crew of some two dozen leading historians together present a coherent succession of first-rate thematic syntheses of the latest research. The balance ... Read moreis right. For the student, there is sufficient density of detail to render this ... an admirable basic text; while bold revisionism and scholarly joisting give real intellectual distinction to the enterprise.' Roy Porter, New Statesman and Society 'These unique, comprehensive, collaborative volumes offer compelling evidence of the richness and vitality of British social history some three decades after its emergence in the later 1950s and early 1960s ... certain to become standard reference works charting the course of scholarship at a particular point in time.' Richard A. Soloway, Social Science Quarterly These unique, comprehensive, collaborative volumes offer compelling evidence of the richness and vitality of British social history some three decades after its emergence in the later 1950s and early 1960s. In many ways the 22 essays written by scholars at institutions throughout Great Britain constitute a persuasive commentary on the current healthy status of the field. Social Science Quarterly ...are certain to become standard reference works charting the course of scholarship at a particular point in time. That is no mean accomplishment, and social historians of Britain should be grateful for it. Social Science Quarterly The CSHB is saved from the unevenness common to many such endeavors by the expertness of its contributors and by a concern to produce more than a collection of articles. Each volume, indeed almost every essay, can stand on its own as a worthwhile contribution to understanding British social history and a useful resource for students at all levels. Both the footnotes and the extensive bibliographies show that the promise of scholarly currency has been kept. Thomas R. Knox, Journal of Cultural Geography ...familiar stories are told with lucidity and intelligence. The contributors, most of whom are leading figures in their fields, provide consistently thorough and balanced discussions of significant historiographic issues and debates as well as evaluate 30 years of monographic literature on social history. This collection is an important work of synthesis and consolidation.... George Robb, Journal of Economic History ...likely to stand as monuments to the scholarship of postwar Britain and to the increasing interest in the social history of that country. Joseph Melling, Business History Review Show Less