'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 is 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

• 1. Government and society in England and Wales, 1750–1914 Pat Thane; 2. Society and the state in twentieth century Britain Jose Harris; 3. Education Gillian Sutherland; 4. Health and medicine Virginia Berridge; 5. Crime, authority and the police-man state V. A. C. Gatrell; 6. Religion James Obelkevich; 7. Philanthropy F. K. Prochaska; 8. Clubs, societies and associations R. J. Morris.

'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 is 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

• 1. Government and society in England and Wales, 1750–1914 Pat Thane; 2. Society and the state in twentieth century Britain Jose Harris; 3. Education Gillian Sutherland; 4. Health and medicine Virginia Berridge; 5. Crime, authority and the police-man state V. A. C. Gatrell; 6. Religion James Obelkevich; 7. Philanthropy F. K. Prochaska; 8. Clubs, societies and associations R. J. Morris.