About the Book
Serendipitous Adventures with Britannia is the latest addition to Wm Roger Louis's stimulating and acclaimed series, Adventures with Britannia. It draws upon a distinguished array of writers and scholars - historians, political scientists, journalists, novelists, biographers and English literature specialists - to guide the reader through a fascinating labyrinth of British culture, history and politics. Together, they provide a unique insight into the pivotal themes - political, literary and cultural - which have shaped British state and society. The subjects covered include a new analysis of Arthur Conan Doyle by David Leal, a new account of Evelyn Waugh and Randolph Churchill, and in literature, Nigel Newton writes on Harry Potter and Bloomsbury. Collectively, the chapters combine a rich mix of original ideas, historical and literary allusion, personality and anecdote, to provide an intellectual adventure into the mainsprings of modern British and international society.
Table of Contents:
Introduction Wm. Roger Louis, The University of Texas at Austin
1. How Churchill’s Mind Worked, Paul Addison, Oxford University
2. Éamon de Valera, Kevin Kenny, New York University
3. Calouste Gulbenkian: Mr. Five Percent, Richard Davenport-Hines, Oxford University
4. Lord Beaverbrook, Jane Ridley, University of Buckingham
5. Evelyn Waugh and Randolph Churchill, Jeffrey Meyers, Biographer and literary, art and film critic
6. Alan Turing: Genius, Patriot, Victim, Robert King, University of Texas
7. Louis George Martin: Champion Weightlifter, John Fair, University of Texas
8. Benjamin Disraeli and Oscar Wilde, Sandra Mayer, University of Vienna and Oxford University
9. William Morris: Artist, Businessman, and Radical, Peter Stansky, Stanford University
10. Ida John: Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Rosemary Hill, Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University
11. Arthur Conan Doyle and Spiritualism, David Leal, University of Texas
12. P. G. Wodehouse, Joseph Epstein, Author of more than 25 books including The Ideal of Culture (2018)
13. Samuel Beckett and Surrealism, Alan Friedman, University of Texas
14. Harry Potter and Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury Publishing
15. A Battle for the Soul of Classics at Oxford, Paul Woodruff, University of Texas
16. Obedience by the Book, Al Martinich, University of Texas
17. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Elizabeth Baigent, Oxford University
18. The Problem with Monuments: A View from All Souls, Edward Mortimer, Oxford University
19. The Social History of the Raj, Max Hastings, Journalist and author of Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 (2018)
20. Warnings from Versailles, 1919, Margaret Macmillan, Oxford University
21. The British Defense of Cyprus, 1941, George Kelling, Civilian Historian with the U.S Air Force
22. How the British Left Palestine, Bernard Wasserstein, Author of several books including The British in Palestine (1978)
23. America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957, Derek Leebaert, Author and a founder of the National Museum of the U.S. Army
24. Brexit: An Historical Romance, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Journalist and Historian
25. Light Reading for Intellectual Heavyweights, Philip Waller, Oxford University
About the Author :
The editor, Wm. Roger Louis, is Kerr Professor of English History and Culture and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, an Honorary Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and a past President of the American Historical Association. His books include Ends of British Imperialism (2006). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford History of the British Empire. In 2013, he was awarded the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 2016 he delivered the Weizmann Memorial Lecture.
Review :
The main pleasure of a book like this is akin to that of listening to a series of assured after-dinner speakers, highly knowledgeable about their chosen subject and able to entertain as well as inform.
