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This collection of essays celebrates the influence of David Cannadine and examines the place of Britain's political and cultural institutions, and the impact of individuals in their formation and evolution.
The focus of this Festschrift is the steady making and remaking of British political and cultural institutions since 1800, and the importance of individual agency in that process. Such focus reflects the preoccupations of one of Britain's most prominent professional and public historians: Sir David Cannadine. Cannadine has written on the changing public face of the monarchy and on the impact of aristocratic sensibilities on modern British political culture. He has examined some of Britain's most well-established institutions, and interpreted the British empire as a project to sustain and promote social hierarchy. In Cannadine's writings on aristocracy, empire, institutional life and national historical memory, individuals appear as history-makers, but always situated in their social and cultural contexts.
Essays in this volume draw inspiration from all these themes. Among the institutions discussed are Parliament, the Primrose League, the civil service, the London Library, the Institute of Historical Research and the National Portrait Gallery. The role of individuals in context features in essays on Benjamin Disraeli, Henry Drummond Wolff, Winston Churchill, the museum director Roy Strong and the National Park publicists Walter Greenwood and Laurie Lee. Tensions between intellectual work and institutional public service are uncovered in essays on Noel Annan, Geoffrey Crowther and Owen Chadwick. Authority (political, social, cultural) - its construction and re-construction - is the central concern guiding the essays. An introductory section discusses the many-sided work of Cannadine himself, both as a historian and as a servant of institutions.
The focus of this Festschrift is the steady making and remaking of British political and cultural institutions since 1800, and the importance of individual agency in that process. Such focus reflects the preoccupations of one of Britain's most prominent professional and public historians: Sir David Cannadine. Cannadine has written on the changing public face of the monarchy and on the impact of aristocratic sensibilities on modern British political culture. He has examined some of Britain's most well-established institutions, and interpreted the British empire as a project to sustain and promote social hierarchy. In Cannadine's writings on aristocracy, empire, institutional life and national historical memory, individuals appear as history-makers, but always situated in their social and cultural contexts.
Essays in this volume draw inspiration from all these themes. Among the institutions discussed are Parliament, the Primrose League, the civil service, the London Library, the Institute of Historical Research and the National Portrait Gallery. The role of individuals in context features in essays on Benjamin Disraeli, Henry Drummond Wolff, Winston Churchill, the museum director Roy Strong and the National Park publicists Walter Greenwood and Laurie Lee. Tensions between intellectual work and institutional public service are uncovered in essays on Noel Annan, Geoffrey Crowther and Owen Chadwick. Authority (political, social, cultural) - its construction and re-construction - is the central concern guiding the essays. An introductory section discusses the many-sided work of Cannadine himself, both as a historian and as a servant of institutions.
Price: $130.00
Pages: 318
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Boydell Press
Publication Date:
02 September 2025
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781837651184
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, European history, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General
List of Figures
Note on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Preface
PART I AN INDIVIDUAL AND HIS INSTITUTIONS
1 David Cannadine, History and British institutions
Jonathan Parry
2 David Cannadine and the Monarchy
Miles Taylor
3 'A Small Lighted Candle': Trusteeship and the National Portrait Gallery
Sandy Nairne
4 David Cannadine and Philanthropy
Paul Ramsbottom
PART II THE THEATRE OF STATE
5 Disraeli as Theatre
Joseph S. Meisel
6 The Primrose, the Salon and the East: Henry Drummond Wolff and Disraelian Aristocratic Politics
Jonathan Parry
7 Dining in the Palace of Varieties: Institutional Culture, Society Living and Party Management in the Victorian House of Commons
Paul Seaward
8 History as His Story: Churchill, Memoirs and Public History
David Reynolds
9 Last Post: Retirement at the British Foreign Office
Helen McCarthy
PART III SOME METROPOLITAN INSTITUTIONS
10 From Bloomsbury to the World: The Institute of Historical Research, Academic Habitus, and Historians as Public Intellectuals, 1921-39
Paul Readman and Martha Vandrei
11 The London Library in its Early Decades: Social and Political Connections of a Victorian Institution
Jill Pellew
12 The Museum as Theatre: Sir Roy Strong at the National Portrait Gallery
Charles Saumarez Smith
PART IV PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS AND POST-WAR BRITAIN
13 The Origins of Britain's National Parks: Laurie Lee, Walter Greenwood and the Documentary Film Park Here (1947)
Stephanie Barczewski
14 Geoffrey Crowther, Economics and Anglo-American futures
James Thompson
15 Boommanship: Noel Annan, Ambition, and Academic life
William Whyte
16 Owen Chadwick and the Writing of Christian History
Stephen Taylor
David Cannadine's Publications
Index
Note on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Preface
PART I AN INDIVIDUAL AND HIS INSTITUTIONS
1 David Cannadine, History and British institutions
Jonathan Parry
2 David Cannadine and the Monarchy
Miles Taylor
3 'A Small Lighted Candle': Trusteeship and the National Portrait Gallery
Sandy Nairne
4 David Cannadine and Philanthropy
Paul Ramsbottom
PART II THE THEATRE OF STATE
5 Disraeli as Theatre
Joseph S. Meisel
6 The Primrose, the Salon and the East: Henry Drummond Wolff and Disraelian Aristocratic Politics
Jonathan Parry
7 Dining in the Palace of Varieties: Institutional Culture, Society Living and Party Management in the Victorian House of Commons
Paul Seaward
8 History as His Story: Churchill, Memoirs and Public History
David Reynolds
9 Last Post: Retirement at the British Foreign Office
Helen McCarthy
PART III SOME METROPOLITAN INSTITUTIONS
10 From Bloomsbury to the World: The Institute of Historical Research, Academic Habitus, and Historians as Public Intellectuals, 1921-39
Paul Readman and Martha Vandrei
11 The London Library in its Early Decades: Social and Political Connections of a Victorian Institution
Jill Pellew
12 The Museum as Theatre: Sir Roy Strong at the National Portrait Gallery
Charles Saumarez Smith
PART IV PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS AND POST-WAR BRITAIN
13 The Origins of Britain's National Parks: Laurie Lee, Walter Greenwood and the Documentary Film Park Here (1947)
Stephanie Barczewski
14 Geoffrey Crowther, Economics and Anglo-American futures
James Thompson
15 Boommanship: Noel Annan, Ambition, and Academic life
William Whyte
16 Owen Chadwick and the Writing of Christian History
Stephen Taylor
David Cannadine's Publications
Index