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The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy Paperback – September 7, 1999

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David Cannadine (Author)
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4.1 out of 5 stars 40 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 848 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Trade Paperback Edition edition (September 7, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375703683
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375703683
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.7 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsExcellent, detailed history of decline of aristocracy
By R. H OAKLEY on March 10, 2004
Format: Paperback
David Cannadine is probably the leading historian of the British aristocracy and landed gentry. The readers of this book will fall into two classes (1) serious historians of the period, and (2) readers of English fiction from Trollope to Waugh who would like to know more about the aristocracy. The latter may find parts of this book heavy going. Cannadine is concerned with the history of a class, and individuals are discussed to illustrate his points. Additionally, a working knowledge of British political history of the period covered (1870-post WWII) is presumed.
Having said that, I found the book well written and thoroughly researched. Cannadine's work is too complex to be reduced to a short summary, but basically the aristocracy found itself beset on all side from around 1880 onward. A prolonged agricultural depression lowered their incomes, and created political pressure to break up the big estates. The increase in the franchise and the end of pocket boroughs undercut their power in the House of Commons. This in turn led to the aristocracy being abandoned even by the Tory party, which realized where the votes were. Ever increasing estate taxes (especially during and after World War II) approached confiscatory levels, requiring families to sell off their land. And many aristocrats found themselves completely unable to cope with those changes. Those who could cope did so largely by breaking the mold of the landed aristocracy of tradition.
Anyone looking for a "Brideshead Revisted" view of the aristocracy will be disappointed. But anyone who wants to know the pressures on the real-life equivalents of the characters of Waugh or Trollope will be greatly informed by this book.
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5.0 out of 5 starsWhatever happened to Brideshead?
By M. A Newman on June 18, 2003
Format: Paperback
How is it that the owners of Britain's stately homes, who once lived magnificently, now are reduced to admitting paying visitors to keep their homes? While this question is never asked in David Cannadine's book, it is answered nonetheless.
Cannadine manages rather adroitly to discuss the long downward spiral of the British aristocracy amidst the backdrop of the history of Great Britain in the 19th and 20th century. There was a time in which these great magnates practically owned or controlled most of the wealth of the nation. What went wrong?
A better question might be, what went right. Although they managed to control politics, the military, the church and the civil service, the position of these guardians of Britannia was undermined by two things, the industrial revolution (which put up a new manufacturing class in opposition to the traditional nobles) and the rise of popular democracy. The first three reform bills drastically weakened the traditional hold of the aristocracy on the political process. During the 19th century it was a rare government that did not include several if not many representatives of the titled orders. By late the 20th century, the presence of one of these would seem somewhat quaint, a reminder of by gone days.
But it was not just the loss of political power that undermined the aristocracy, the immediate pre WWI years were a disaster of the first magnitude with Lloyd George and his "people's budget."
One wonders what would have happened to someone of Lloyd George's ilk in the 17th century. Doubless he would have shared the same fate as Bishop Laud.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsAn Indispensable Threnody
By Daniel Myers VINE VOICE on January 6, 2010
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This book is an absolute must read for anyone interested not merely in the decline of British aristocracy, but in the swift changes wrought in British society, politics and literature from 1880 to the outbreak of WWII. Cannadine does cover WWII and the following decades, but he gives them rather short shrift, for, as the exacting and exhaustive main body of this magisterial work makes superabundantly clear, the British aristocracy was already in rigor mortis by then.

What made this work so indispensable to me was that it showed the actual, very real, background for literary works written during this period: Waugh, Wilde, Wodehouse, Yeats and, of course, the Mitfords. If you want to know the reality of what happened to estates like Waugh's fictional Brideshead, you will learn all about the land devaluation, estate taxes and encumbrances on such estates originally contracted in order to ensure entail and jointures, but now spelling their doom. You will meet many, all too many, real life Lady Marchmains and understand more fully the social backdrop which makes them totally unsuited for the 20th Century.

And, well, let's just take an actual case: Bertrand Russell. Primogeniture ensured that the gentrified earldom in which he came of age passed onto his brother. In previous eras, a generous codicil with annuity would have, nevertheless, granted him lifelong security. Unfortunately, due to land devaluation, his brother went bankrupt and lost everything except the title. Russell, too, lost everything and became a Socialist member of the Labour party, not entirely because of his ideological position and philosophical beliefs, but because of something deeper from which they arose: a visceral animosity to the industrialists and capitalists who now controlled the country.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsVery solid work.

Great read. Yes, it is lengthy but worth it. For those of us who have a soft spot for Aristocracy this has to be one of the saddest chapters in British history. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Exceptional!

Published 3 months ago by dvd24
2.0 out of 5 starsToo dense.

I bought this book because I was fascinated by the series "Downton Abbey" and wanted to know more. There wasn't alot out there, but I thought I would give it a try. Read more

Published 4 months ago by K S Lane
1.0 out of 5 starsToo scholarly for me to enjoy.

A study of the politics, politicians and legislation in the first half of the 20th century, Too scholarly for me to enjoy.

Published 6 months ago by Susan Tucker
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Superb study of the end of an era. Detailed and at times ponderous, but worthwhile on every page.

Published 7 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsThe End of an Era

A detailed scholarly work of the landed gentry of Britain. The decline of land values, crushing taxation, death levies, losses of male heirs in both world wars took their toll and... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Elder Prep
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

not completed yet

Published 7 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsThe transience of entitlement and privilege

The author begins the epilogue of his excellent book with a comment on the 'transience of human life and the impermanence of worldly dominion', and makes use of that chapter to... Read more

Published 8 months ago by sedgewick
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

very good book, but very long.

Published 9 months ago by larrychase
4.0 out of 5 starsEngland's Path to the 21st Century

This is a book for a person really interested in England--its history, its political, and its economic development. It is not written for the casual reader. Read more

Published 20 months ago by MJN Go

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