Hilton's book is possibly the best in the New Oxford History of England...The book covers a lot of ground, but is well organized and remarkable for its cohesion and clarity...No serious student of the period can afford not to read this book.
Michael J Turner, Labour History Review.
A scrupulously complete analysis of political and social change...
... Read moreCharles Saumarez Smith, The Sunday Telegraph
History writing at its most compelling.
Adam Phillips, The Observer
The range, richness and complexity of Boyd Hilton's text are impossible to convey in summary, and hard fully to appreciate in a single reading. A mastery of the voluminous literature is complimented by an acquaintance with the sources which produce a wealth of illuminating quotation to catch the tones and inflections of the age...The analysis it offers, and the proportions and emphases which it adopts, will galvanize debate for years to come, and make it a contribution to history such as a safer survey, less ambitious in design, enterprising in argument, and integrative in technique, could not be.
Paul Smith, The Times Literary Supplement
Trenchant, vivid, massively researched and very well written
Linda Colley, London Review of Books
The main narrative is interspersed with fascinating essays on science, religion, art, architecture and literature - a generous helping for the many people who will read this book for pleasure rather than profit.
Ben Wilson, The Spectator
Boyd Hilton has produced a tour de force that will stimulate interest in and guide understanding of the period for years to come.
Peter Borsay, BBC History Magazine
A lively and wide-ranging study...[a] comprehensive, intriguing and challenging volume that has proved well worth the wait.
Tristram Hunt, New Statesman
This book, like its companion volumes, takes for its subject English society as a whole, and the Byronic nudge of the title, as well as promising entertainment, is meant to alert us to the idea that the years before the Victorian Reform Acts were ones of violence, apprehension and 18th century debauchery.
David Horspool, The Guardian
A model of the historian's art and a trailblazing marriage of intellectual and political history
Atlantic Monthly
A magnificent contribution
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