Ultimate Adventures with Britannia

The latest volume in Wm. Roger Louis's acclaimed "Adventures with Britannia" series takes the reader on a highly engaging excursion through British life and intellectual biography. Collecting the interpretations of outstanding writers on the literature and history of modern Britain, "Ultimate Adventures with Britannia" deals with a rich variety of themes -- some familiar, many unexpected. The scope of this wide-ranging volume includes not only the personalities, politics and culture of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but also the interaction between British and other societies throughout the world.

The chapters embracing historical themes include Brian Harrison and Dominic Sandbrook on the 1960s and Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Churchill and the Jews. In Britannia's literary domain, Dan Jacobson assesses Thomas Hardy and T.S. Eliot while Margaret Macmillan asks how well Paul Scott's Raj Quartet bears up after some four decades. And in a combination of cultural, architectural and intellectual history, Bernard Wasserstein traces the decline and possible revival of the "second city in the Empire," Glasgow. "Ultimate Adventures with Britannia" retains all the intellectual originality and accessibility that characterise the earlier volumes in this series and continues a stimulating and highly appealing tradition.