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Aspects of Aristocracy
In this remarkable collection of nine astute and superbly entertaining essays, historian David Cannadine offers his own observations about what makes the British aristocracy so powerful, vulnerable, quixotic, and endlessly fascinating. Starting with the birth of the British upper-class in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the essays provide a significant and provocative assessment of the roles these dynastic families played in the evolution of Britain's financial, geographic, and industrial history. Along the way, Cannadine critically dissects and rehabilitates the lives of Winston Churchill, Harold Nicolson, and Vita Sackville-West. Cannadine's uniquely informed perspective brings a mixture of sympathy and detachment, skeptical interest, and ironic fascination to the continuing drama of the aristocracy in modern history.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionEssays
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
David Cannadine
69 books76 followersSir David Cannadine FBA FRSL FSA FRHistS is a British author and historian, who specialises in modern history and the history of business and philanthropy.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 31, 2024
On a book buying ban, raiding Henry’s bookshelf.
Hardly succinct, but nonetheless an enjoyable read. Dogged down in the details perhaps (especially regarding the endless Cozens-Hardys), however well-researched and well-thought out.
I appreciated the placing of Churchill within the realm of the declining aristocracy, and found it interesting how such a well-regarded man (and controversial!) of today, was considered for much of his early life the scion of a debauched, spendthrift aristocrat, and much thought to be of his ilk.
Dislike of the Nicolson and Sackville-Wests’ is palpable. I’m only aware of them as members of the Bloomsbury Group and their unconventional love lives. Cannadine is correct in that too much is made of this. They were, in effect, hopeless snobs.
Hardly succinct, but nonetheless an enjoyable read. Dogged down in the details perhaps (especially regarding the endless Cozens-Hardys), however well-researched and well-thought out.
I appreciated the placing of Churchill within the realm of the declining aristocracy, and found it interesting how such a well-regarded man (and controversial!) of today, was considered for much of his early life the scion of a debauched, spendthrift aristocrat, and much thought to be of his ilk.
Dislike of the Nicolson and Sackville-Wests’ is palpable. I’m only aware of them as members of the Bloomsbury Group and their unconventional love lives. Cannadine is correct in that too much is made of this. They were, in effect, hopeless snobs.
June 4, 2025
The section on Churchill's family was one of the most entertaining half hours of reading I have ever enjoyed.
December 1, 2019
To my knowledge I have never met an aristocrat. I did once meet a member of the House of Lords, but he was a life peer and former trade union leader, so hardly counts. I have a German friend who owns a castle, but lacking the required "von" in his surname, I'm not sure that he's a true aristocrat either.
The fact that I, and presumably many other people, have never met someone with a hereditary title is unsurprising. According to Cannadine's delightful short book of essays on aristocracy, most dukes, earls, marquises and the like very much stick to their own. Apart from Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, whose enthusiasm for all things mechanical led him to become a train driver, most of the lords in this book spent their time mixing with other lords and few besides. Though the minor Norfolk gentry, the Cozens-Hardies of Letheringsett did come to dominate Norwich's legal scene.
This book, some 25 years old now, appears to be a companion volume to Cannadine's more systematic work on the decline and fall of the British aristocracy. I've not read this, but it doesn't matter for the purposes of enjoying these essays.
The nine essays are structured in three sections - a general discussion of the nature of aristocracy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, case studies of three particularly striking aristocratic adventurers (Curzon, Strickland and Churchill) and a wider discussion on the importance of dynastic concerns in understanding the motivations of the aristocrats.
Rather cleverly, Cannadine gets the eccentrics out the way early. It appears that P.G. Wodehouse had plenty of material to work upon as we read of Viscount Curzon, who took up motor racing on the advice of his local magistrate who was fed up with fining him, or the Hon. Mrs Victor Bruce who marked the two minute silence whilst flying by cutting her engine for the required time. She survived, countless other aristocrats who flirted with cars and aeroplanes didn't. There is voluminous trivia here to file away for pub quizzes. For instance, C.S. Rolls of Rolls Royce happened to be the first Englishman killed in a plan accident. Lord Strickland was an elected member of parliament for both the British and the Maltese legislatures and he was briefly prime minister of the latter whilst being an English MP. Like most of the aristocrats detailed here he comes across as a rather sad and complicated man who failed to make the most of the many opportunities that came his way - opportunities that of course did not come to many abler and untitled men and women.
The tone of the essays becomes more serious as we progress through. As a "friend" of Chatsworth I was intrigued to read about the near disastrous sums invested by the Dukes of Devonshire in the town of Barrow which nearly brought them to the brink of ruin. The displays at Chatsworth have entirely neglected that story, Barrow not being as picturesque (though equally ruinous) as Lady Georgina.
The final essay, dealing with the really quite unpleasant pairing of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson reminds us that the inhabitants of these beautiful houses were frequently snobbish and contemptuous of everyone from a different social set. Sackville-West really thought that the middle and working classes should be treated no differently to cattle - well fed, but penned up.
In an epilogue Cannadine pours cold water on the recent idea that aristocrats are the custodians of our green and pleasant land. The National Trust was founded to protect countryside, not historic houses - something that tends to be forgotten now. The aristocracy have existed throughout the centuries primarily to consolidate power and to pass influence and money on to the next generation. The more in thrall we are to the Chatsworths and Burleigh Parks of the country, the less we see the purposes that lay behind their building and the messages that they were built to convey.
The fact that I, and presumably many other people, have never met someone with a hereditary title is unsurprising. According to Cannadine's delightful short book of essays on aristocracy, most dukes, earls, marquises and the like very much stick to their own. Apart from Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, whose enthusiasm for all things mechanical led him to become a train driver, most of the lords in this book spent their time mixing with other lords and few besides. Though the minor Norfolk gentry, the Cozens-Hardies of Letheringsett did come to dominate Norwich's legal scene.
This book, some 25 years old now, appears to be a companion volume to Cannadine's more systematic work on the decline and fall of the British aristocracy. I've not read this, but it doesn't matter for the purposes of enjoying these essays.
The nine essays are structured in three sections - a general discussion of the nature of aristocracy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, case studies of three particularly striking aristocratic adventurers (Curzon, Strickland and Churchill) and a wider discussion on the importance of dynastic concerns in understanding the motivations of the aristocrats.
Rather cleverly, Cannadine gets the eccentrics out the way early. It appears that P.G. Wodehouse had plenty of material to work upon as we read of Viscount Curzon, who took up motor racing on the advice of his local magistrate who was fed up with fining him, or the Hon. Mrs Victor Bruce who marked the two minute silence whilst flying by cutting her engine for the required time. She survived, countless other aristocrats who flirted with cars and aeroplanes didn't. There is voluminous trivia here to file away for pub quizzes. For instance, C.S. Rolls of Rolls Royce happened to be the first Englishman killed in a plan accident. Lord Strickland was an elected member of parliament for both the British and the Maltese legislatures and he was briefly prime minister of the latter whilst being an English MP. Like most of the aristocrats detailed here he comes across as a rather sad and complicated man who failed to make the most of the many opportunities that came his way - opportunities that of course did not come to many abler and untitled men and women.
The tone of the essays becomes more serious as we progress through. As a "friend" of Chatsworth I was intrigued to read about the near disastrous sums invested by the Dukes of Devonshire in the town of Barrow which nearly brought them to the brink of ruin. The displays at Chatsworth have entirely neglected that story, Barrow not being as picturesque (though equally ruinous) as Lady Georgina.
The final essay, dealing with the really quite unpleasant pairing of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson reminds us that the inhabitants of these beautiful houses were frequently snobbish and contemptuous of everyone from a different social set. Sackville-West really thought that the middle and working classes should be treated no differently to cattle - well fed, but penned up.
In an epilogue Cannadine pours cold water on the recent idea that aristocrats are the custodians of our green and pleasant land. The National Trust was founded to protect countryside, not historic houses - something that tends to be forgotten now. The aristocracy have existed throughout the centuries primarily to consolidate power and to pass influence and money on to the next generation. The more in thrall we are to the Chatsworths and Burleigh Parks of the country, the less we see the purposes that lay behind their building and the messages that they were built to convey.
July 12, 2018
A really interesting collection of essays about topics illustrative of greater trends, like that with the story of the Cozens-Hardys, and people and families who interest the author. I particularly liked the essays on Churchill and "Harold and Vita," where he skewers the myth around them all a bit. Typically well sourced history with much thought given to trends. Only problem I had was that I wish he referenced that the appendix had a Cozens-Hardy family tree, as that would have made it much easier to follow everyone in a family where everyone's a william.
May 24, 2012
Fairly dry, but still interesting. I have a history degree mainly because I wish I could be a fly on the wall of all eras* of history and know what it REALLY felt like to live in 988, or 1327, or 1904. It's hard to find a book that really manages to do a good job of fulfilling that wish. I'm not sure if Cannadine really succeeded, but this does really give you an idea of what the vague idea of "aristocracy" in England really meant.
I just want someone to write a book that breaks down the exact way that an aristocratic household in Victorian England/Europe during the World Wars was run (a la Downton Abbey). Just the facts, please.
*maybe not a fly on the wall during the Black Plague or in malarial India.
I just want someone to write a book that breaks down the exact way that an aristocratic household in Victorian England/Europe during the World Wars was run (a la Downton Abbey). Just the facts, please.
*maybe not a fly on the wall during the Black Plague or in malarial India.
July 13, 2013
A fascinating collection of essays. Especially interesting were the accounts of aristocratic indebtedness (chapter 2), the finances of the Dukes of Devonshire (chapter 7), and the skewering of the cult of "Harold and Vita" (chapter 9).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews