The Age of Decadence

February 15, 2021
A dense narrative account of Great Britain's social and political conflicts in the decades before World War I. "Swagger was the predominant style of the period," asserts journalist and popular historian Heffer in his first book to be published in the U.S. He notes that the affluence and complacency of the English upper classes, traditionally viewed as defining features of the late Victorian and Edwardian years, covered up working-class, feminist, and Irish discontents. The Third Reform Act of 1884 went a long way toward extending the franchise, and the House of Lords reluctantly assented to it, but the Lords' fierce resistance to the "People's Budget" of 1909 provoked a constitutional crisis that nearly resulted in the abolition of the aristocratic upper chamber. Heffer covers this struggle as well as the parliamentary battles over Irish home rule and the government's maladroit handling of such colonial imbroglios as the Boer War and the Siege of Khartoum. The author's level of detail will daunt casual readers, but those who like their history long and leisurely will enjoy his approach. He offers similarly in-depth treatments of various juicy scandals among the Marlborough House Set, the louche circle formed around the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), and he shows how they were examples of the triviality and sexual hypocrisy of Britain's upper classes. Queen Victoria fares no better, sketched as a dour reactionary who detested the liberal governments she was forced to collaborate with as a constitutional monarch. Heffer comes across as middle-of-the-road politically and socially: He deplores Britain's economic inequality and imperial injustices, but he depicts the strikes of trade union activists and the protests of militant suffragettes as provocative and needlessly divisive. Judicious but brief passages about the period's culture, including exegeses of such paradigmatic works as John Galsworthy's play Strife and H.G Wells' novel Ann Veronica, somewhat leaven the heavy overall focus on political maneuvers. Fans of sturdy, traditional history will appreciate this comprehensive survey.

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February 26, 2021

Intended as a sequel to Heffer's previous work (High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain), this comprehensive history plumbs the last decades of the Victorian period and first of the Edwardian--an era whose defining characteristic, according to Heffer, was "swagger," the confidence the upper echelons of English society held in their own preeminence. Their swagger affected all aspects of British life, even as the pillars that upheld traditional social order and the British Empire itself were beginning to crumble, due in part to political missteps, high-level scandals, and increasing restlessness of working-class people. These wide-ranging changes are Heffer's chief topic. He also examines how the rise of leisure time and the middle class affected the development of pleasure reading, music, and sports, but his focus is on the governmental arena, with entire chapters dedicated to in-depth accounts of parliamentary wrangling over Irish Home Rule and expansions of voting rights. These are a treat for those who enjoy political particulars, but will likely be too much for some. VERDICT Thorough, solid, and exceedingly detailed. Casual readers might find the amount of information overwhelming, but this is an excellent choice for history lovers who want to fully sink into the era.--Kathleen McCallister, William & Mary Libs., Williamsburg, VA

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Starred review from March 1, 2021
The years between Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and the start of WWI found Britain swaggering with both empire and wealth, but undergoing vast political, economic, social, and technological change. Having already detailed British involvement in WWI in Staring at God (2019), Simon Heffer pens a prequel to that work. Nothing escapes Heffer's notice. He details the last governments of William Gladstone as the franchise is extended and entrenched aristocratic privilege and power succumb to new industrial fortunes. Edwardian baroque architecture transforms London as well as Manchester and Bristol. Music becomes heroic with Edward Elgar's popularity. John Galsworthy in literature and Arthur Pinero in drama capture the social milieu and help lay bare the age's moral hypocrisy regarding prostitution, adultery, and homosexuality. Fortunes are made, yet hundreds of thousands, both urban and rural, live in deep poverty. Literacy expands, but the great old universities are still largely shut to the lower classes. The Irish continue seething. Amid this, tensions are growing in Edwardian society that culminate in the sweeping away of many of Britain's imperial pretensions in the ghastly trenches of France. Heffer's history is broad and deep and casts a brilliant light on this remarkable era. Includes illustrations and a bibliography.

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