The past is a foreign country

The Georgians: The Deeds and Misdeeds of 18th-Century Britain

Penelope Corfield (Yale University Press £25)

PENELOPE CORFIELD has set herself an ambitious task: how to distil the complex, overarching narratives of the British-Irish 18th century—from shifting dynasties, multiple national identities and parliamentary politics, to warfare (at home and abroad), colonial expansion and international trade —into a neatly ‘doable’ length, as well as giving due notice to the myriad particulars of our forebears’ everyday lives. For a start, how to define or name your period? Not so easy, given the 18th century begins inconveniently (from a branding perspective) with the late Stuarts, before a double brace of ‘Hanoverian’ Georges propels us from 1714 into the 19th century.

Here, the reader is in very safe hands. The author, now Emeritus Professor of History at Royal Holloway and (1995), has been a formidable academic presence in British 18th-century historical studies for many decades.