Walpole, 1715-22. -- 8. Sir Robert Walpole, 1722-33. -- 9. Sir Robert Walpole and the patriots, 1733-42.

Part II. -- The age of Chatham. -- 1. The Agrarian and industrial revolutions, 1742-84. -- 2. The social consequenes of the industrial revolution. -- 3. John Wesley and the road to salvation. -- 4. The arts and sciences of Dr Johnson's world. -- 5. Chatham and the drive for empire. -- 6. George III and John Wilkes. -- 7. The loss of the American Colonies. -- 8.Radicalism and reform, 1770-84.

Part III. The age of Pitt. -- 1. The course of the industrial revolution, 1784-1815. -- 2.The reception of the French revolution. -- 3. Art and science, 1784-1815. -- 4. The British in India. -- 5. The Irish Empire. -- 6. William Pitt and the National Revival. -- 7. The war at sea, 1793-1802. -- 8. The war on land, 1802-15.

Further reading list.

Index.

This history of England in the eighteenth century is not a chronological narrative of ministries and wars, but a history of the development of English society; the ministries and wars, of course have their place, but no greater a place than the economic , cultural, and social history of the time. The book has been divided into three parts: The Ages of Walpole, of Chatham, and of Pitt. These divisions are useful for analysing those social forces which enabled these three great statesmen to stamp the impress of their personality upon hisotory. But there are aspects of English life which which belong to the century as a whole and connot be forced into any chronological divisions. Obviously to have written three short chapters on India, or on Ireland, world have been to make a fetish our of a convenience. Instead these subjects, and others, have been dealt with at the time when they became a dominat theme in English life. Most of this book is devoted to the hard and bitter lives of ordinary men and women, and the those men of genius and talent who made it a time for hope.