British Politics in the Age of Holmes: Geoffrey Holmes's "British Politics in the Age of Anne" 40 Years On

When Geoffrey Holmes published ‘British Politics in the Age of Anne’ in 1967 it was seen as a masterpiece of historical research and writing and quickly became the accepted interpretation of the politics of the early eighteenth century, displacing the previous one based on the methodology pioneered by Sir Lewis Namier. In 1987 a revised edition was published, and 20 years on from that a distinguished group of historian have come together to produced the articles in this volume looking at the various aspects of the book and assessing how Holmes’s work has been taken up and developed in the various fields covered by him in ‘British Politics’ and in some of his later writings. The present volume also takes some topics which Holmes’s only touched upon, such as gender, jacobite and urban history, to see how his influence has been felt in these fields.