Illustrated English Social History: 3 [Second Hand]

Illustrated English Social History: 3 

Volume Three

This is the book in which Trevelyan famously said that social history was 'history with the politics left out'. He was much criticised for this, particularly by Marxists, who took the view that the political and the social were inextricably entwined, indeed that the politics was but a pale reflection of social and economic developments; but it is Trevelyan, not Marx, who has stood the test of time. Anyone wanting to know how medieval England differed from the modern version would do well to start with this introduction, which is beautifully and comprehensively illustrated.

When I first came across Trevelyan, 50 years ago, he was regarded as distinctly old-fashioned; but A.L.Rowse (in 'Historians I have Known') had no doubt that he was 'The Master', the undisputed head of the historical profession in England; and this book, which was largely written before the Second World War, shows that it was Rowse, and not the more soi-disant up to date historians, who were right.