S J D Green - Böcker

All Souls College in Oxford is a unique academic institution and has had a unique history. But its history has been little known and its fortunes in the period 1600-1850 have been viewed, if at all, through the eyes of the Victorian university 'reformers'. This volume explores for the first time the 'ancien régime' in All Souls on its own terms. It brings together sixteen substantial studies of some of the college's most significant figures, among them the architect and polymath Christopher Wren and the great eighteenth-century lawyer William Blackstone. Its chapters trace the involvement of the College's fellows in the wider world: as key figures in the developing legal profession in London, negotiating the complexities of the English Civil War and the Restoration, as active in national and ecclesiastical politics, as innovators of early modern 'science' and technology, as participants in philosophical and intellectual debate, as significant patrons of art and architecture with European connections, and as administrators of British imperial interests and missionary efforts in the Caribbean and India.

This innovative book provides an essential historical perspective on the boundaries of the state in modern Britain. The collection of inter-disciplinary studies gathered here is unimpressed by the apparent 'rise' of the state before 1979 and its supposed 'decline' in the wake of Thatcherism. The Boundaries of the State in Modern Britain constitutes a comprehensive and coherent attempt to delineate the many and varying aspects of public involvement in private life during the twentieth century. It shows how the state has advanced into some areas of life, whilst vacating others. It explores the impact of these changes on civil society and intellectual life in Britain. Finally, the contributors consider where the state might be going in the twenty-first century.

The seemingly inexorable decline of Christianity in Britain has long fascinated historians, sociologists and churchmen. They have also been exasperated by their failure to understand its origins or chart its progress. Sceptical both of traditional accounts and of their more recent rejection by revisionist writers, S. J. D. Green concentrates scholarly attention for the first time on the 'social history of the chapel' in a characteristic industrial-urban setting. He demonstrates just why so many churches were built in late Victorian Britain, who built them, who went to them, and why. He evaluates the 'associational ideal' during its period of greatest success, and explains the causes of its decline. In this way, Religion in the Age of Decline offers a fresh interpretation of the extent and the implications of the decline of religion in twentieth-century Britain.

This innovative book provides an essential historical perspective on the boundaries of the state in modern Britain. The collection of inter-disciplinary studies gathered here is unimpressed by the apparent 'rise' of the state before 1979 and its supposed 'decline' in the wake of Thatcherism. The Boundaries of the State in Modern Britain constitutes a comprehensive and coherent attempt to delineate the many and varying aspects of public involvement in private life during the twentieth century. It shows how the state has advanced into some areas of life, whilst vacating others. It explores the impact of these changes on civil society and intellectual life in Britain. Finally, the contributors consider where the state might be going in the twenty-first century.

The seemingly inexorable decline of Christianity in Britain has long fascinated historians, sociologists and churchmen. They have also been exasperated by their failure to understand its origins or chart its progress. Sceptical both of traditional accounts and of their more recent rejection by revisionist writers, S. J. D. Green concentrates scholarly attention for the first time on the 'social history of the chapel' in a characteristic industrial-urban setting. He demonstrates just why so many churches were built in late Victorian Britain, who built them, who went to them, and why. He evaluates the 'associational ideal' during its period of greatest success, and explains the causes of its decline. In this way, Religion in the Age of Decline offers a fresh interpretation of the extent and the implications of the decline of religion in twentieth-century Britain.

In this book S. J. D. Green offers an important account of the causes, courses and consequences of the secularisation of English society. He argues that the critical cultural transformation of modern English society was forged in the agonised abandonment of a long-domesticated Protestant, Christian tradition between 1920 and 1960. Its effects were felt across the nation and among all classes. Yet their significance in the evolution of contemporary indigenous identities remains curiously neglected in most mainstream accounts of post-Victorian Britain. Dr Green traces the decline of English ecclesiastical institutions after 1918. He also investigates the eclipse of once-common moral sensibilities during the years up to 1945. Finally, he examines why subsequent efforts to reverse these trends so comprehensively failed. His work will be of enduring interest to modern historians, sociologists of religion, and all those concerned with the future of faith in Britain and beyond.

In this book S. J. D. Green offers an important account of the causes, courses and consequences of the secularisation of English society. He argues that the critical cultural transformation of modern English society was forged in the agonised abandonment of a long-domesticated Protestant, Christian tradition between 1920 and 1960. Its effects were felt across the nation and among all classes. Yet their significance in the evolution of contemporary indigenous identities remains curiously neglected in most mainstream accounts of post-Victorian Britain. Dr Green traces the decline of English ecclesiastical institutions after 1918. He also investigates the eclipse of once-common moral sensibilities during the years up to 1945. Finally, he examines why subsequent efforts to reverse these trends so comprehensively failed. His work will be of enduring interest to modern historians, sociologists of religion, and all those concerned with the future of faith in Britain and beyond.