Social

Once among the least monitored nations in the world, Britain is now probably the most watched. Why do Britons make so little fuss about this erosion of their ancient liberties, asks Bernard Porter?

Since Tudor times, and for four centuries, the observance of the Sabbath was strictly enjoined by Government regulation.

Anthony Babington describes life in an eighteenth century London prison for felons, debtors and rebels.

To deal with revolutionary violence and social unrest, writes Patricia Wright, the Tsar granted one of his generals almost dictatorial powers.

Walter L. Arnstein offers a study of the movement for female emancipation, from the 1860s until 1918.

Reginald and Jamila Massey trace the visit of an Indian to England during the eighteen-fifties, who opined the natives ‘are entirely submissive... to the commands of their superiors. Their sense of patriotism is greater than that of any nation in the world’.

During the nineteenth century French taste reflected the social and political trends of the period; but it was also much influenced, writes Brian Reade,  by the work of English craftsmen.

Outside the London of Shakespeare's time, writes Anthony Dent, coaches were few and most travellers were horse-borne.

Henry Kamen describes the apotheosis of emancipated Russian womanhood.

From 1774 to 1827, writes Adrian Bury, the ordinary Englishman and woman were drawn from life by Rowlandson with incomparable industry and vigour.