IV

General

(A) LONGER PERIODS

General histories of Britain have appeared, but they all leave a
good deal to be desired. Felling's book, though already some-
\vhat out of date and not exactly a work of art, at least puts
together a usable picture and account;79 the two volumes in
the Michigan 'History of the World' need to be treated with
much care.80 Cantor's remarkable mixture of straight, some-
what old-fashioned, history, and subtle and rather modern
historiography contains some new insights.81 Covering only
half the period, Webb does better with a lively, beautifully
written treatment of some 200 years which gains greatly from
the author's relative distance from conventional accounts.82

Betty Kemp's brief survey of the troubles between king and
parliament benefits from the choice of an unusual pair of ter-
minal dates.83 More original, but unhappily not as reliable,
exhaustive or lucid as might be wished, are the studies in par-
liamentary business to which Orlo Williams was inspired by
his professional experience as a clerk to the commons; his work
enshrines some traditions of the house which might otherwise

79 Keith Feiling, A History of England from the Coming of the English
to 1938. L: Macmillan: 1950. Pp. xxxiv, 1229. Rev: AHR 57,

I2lff.

80 Maurice Ashley, Great Britain to 1688. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P:
1961. Pp. xi, 444, xxii.-K. B. Smellie, Great Britain since 1688.
Ibid.: 1962. Pp. vi, 462, xviii.

81 Norman F. Cantor, The English: to 1760. New York: Simon &
Schuster: 1967. Pp. 526.

82 Robert K. Webb, Modern England: from the eighteenth century to the
present. L: Allen & Unwin: 1969. Pp. xviii, 652.

83 Betty Kemp, King and Parliament 1660 -1832. L: Macmillan: 1957.
Pp. vii, 168. Rev: EHR 73, 354.