British Aristocracy and the Modern World

Miles Taylor moved to Berlin in 2021. He was previously Professor of Modern History at the University of York in the UK, and between 2008 and 2014 Director of the Institute of Historical Research in London. He studied at Queen Mary College University of London, Harvard University (where he was a Kennedy Scholar) and the University of Cambridge where he was awarded his PhD in 1989. He has taught at Cambridge, King’s College London, and Southampton (where he was Professor of Modern British History, 2001-4). Professor Taylor is a 19th century specialist with a particular interest in Britain and its empire. His recent books include Empress: Queen Victoria and India (Yale 2018) and (as co-editor) The Utopian Universities: A Global History of the New Campuses of the 1960s (Bloomsbury, 2020). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Christopher Ridgway is head curator at Castle Howard, Yorkshire. Since 1999 he has been Chair of the Yorkshire Country House Partnership. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Dept of History at Maynooth University. His publications include: Castle Howard and Brideshead, Fact, Fiction and In-Between (Castle Howard, 2011); The Morpeth Roll, Ireland identified in 1841 (Four Courts Press, 2013); and (as co-editor), The Intellectual World of the Country House in Ireland and Britain (Four Courts Press, 2024). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Dr Jennifer Davey, Director, History of Parliament TrustOffering a thoughtful, intelligent, and lively appraisal of David Cannadine’s The Decline and Fall the British Aristocracy, this collection offers fresh perspectives on the British landed elite and opens up new avenues for research and debate. It traces the intersections of power and privilege through regional, imperial, transnational, gender and religious histories. This will be an important work for all those interested in the evolving dynamics of the British aristocracy.

• Table of contents:List of Figures Notes on Contributors PrefaceIntroduction MILES TAYLOR The Scottish Aristocracy, Landownership and Land Reform, 1746-2022: Decline and Fall or Resistance and Resilience? ANNIE TINDLEY The Decline and Fall of the Anglo-Irish Aristocracy: The Role of the Irish Land Commission, 1881-1992 TERENCE DOOLEY Wales and the Country House: Reflections on Decline, Loss and RenewalSHAUN EVANS A Jewish Landed Interest ABIGAIL GREEN AND MARCUS ROBERTS Transatlantic Slavery, Landownership and Enclosure in England, 1738-1836 CORRINE FOWLER Decline and Fall German style. A Historiographical approach towards the Nobility EWALD FRIE AND DANIEL MENNING Anglo-American Marital Relations, 1870-1940KATHLEEN BURK The Decline and Fall of the Lady Bountiful? Adaptation, Empire and Philanthropy MARTHA GROPPO Is There Such Thing as an English Country House? STEPHANIE BARCZEWSKI Solving the Country House Problem after the Second World WarBEN COWELL Indian Princes, Parliament and Presidential Power: the Concord of Princes (1967-71) ANGMA D. JHALA An Island Story: the Decline and Fall of a European Elite MAX EGREMONT A Working Leisured ClassCHRISTOPHER RIDGWAY Index