Dominion
Peter Ackroyd
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Dominion
Peter Ackroyd
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
It takes just a few pages for Peter Ackroyd to let readers know he won’t be getting weepy over Victorian England. His clear-eyed assessment of the later stages of the British Empire includes an early nod to an era of humor and sadness, spirituality and modesty — and a warning to those who might romanticize that past.
In the fifth volume of his comprehensive, masterfully conceived, and evenly written history of England—which reaches from the foundation of the English kingdom to, at this point in his survey, the innovations underscoring the dominion of the seas that characterized the Victorian Era—Ackroyd sees that 'change' was in the air and, further, that the groundswell urge for change was focused on political reform.
This fast-paced fifth volume of a popular history of England by Ackroyd—a novelist, broadcaster, biographer, and poet—covers 1815–1901, a time dominated by the long reign of Queen Victoria, characterized by the growth of the British Empire, and marked by such socioeconomically transformative inventions as the steam engine, railroad, and telegraph.
Ackroyd’s observation that nobody can live in an age outside their own because the smells, sights, and reality would be unendurable will awaken many readers to our similarities and differences.