The apocalyptic fiction of H. G. Wells notwithstanding, few Edwardians entered into Max Beerbohm’s fears about the over-enthusiastic embrace of technology. On the contrary: buoyed by the rhetoric of empire and dazzled by the wonders of science, they surrendered themselves to the current of ever-accelerating change, confident it would bring them, and the nation, nothing but good. Britain was booming. Since the turn of the century, its population had burgeoned by three million each year. By 1910, it was nearing forty-five million. During the same period, the population of Greater London had
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