Includes bibliographical references (p. [664]-723) and index.

1. England 1783-1846: a preview. The Economy: Crisis and Survival -- An Old or New Regime? -- The Politics of Theatre and the Theatre of Politics. 2. Politics in the time of Pitt and Fox, 1783-1807. The Launching of Pitt and the Destruction of Fox -- Party Government or Broad Bottom? -- The French Revolution and Political Realignment -- 'Pitt's Terror' -- Irish Problems -- French Wars -- The Fall of Pitt -- Peace and War. 3. Pittism and plutocracy: the social and psychological foundations. Court Whigs, Country Whigs, and the Conservative Reaction -- Virtuous Economics -- A New Vision of Government -- Class Distinctions and Rentier Capitalism -- The Late Hanoverian Aristocracy: Domination or Accommodation? -- Commerce and the Quasi-Professions -- Business Classes -- Producers and Dealers: The Makings of a Lesser-Middle Class? -- Civic Cultures: A Literary and Philosophical People -- The Evangelical Revival -- Slavery and National Mission: The Politics of Virtue -- The Politics of Pittism: Rhetoric and Reality. 4. Politics in the time of Liverpool and Canning, 1807-1827. The Development of Two-Party Politics? -- The Narrative Resumed: All-Out Warfare -- Liberation and Liberalism -- Victory, the Second Empire, and a Mistaken Case of National Identity -- 'A malady of Peace': The Foundations of Monetary Policy -- Rethinking the Corn Laws -- The Squires' Revolt -- 'Never a Controversial Cabinet': Lord Liverpool's System of Politics -- The Reshuffle of 1821-1823 and the Origins of Cabinet Government -- Divided Cabinets: Foreign and Economic Policies -- 5. Ruling ideologies. 'A Love of System' -- Liberal Toryism versus High Toryism -- Utilitarianism -- Natural Theology in a Fallen World -- The Paradoxes of Political Economy -- Philosophic Whiggism -- The Status of Women and Ideas about Gender. 6. The crisis of the old order, 1827-1832. Coalition and the Canningite Flame -- The Goderich File -- The First Blow: Test and Corporation Act Repeal -- The Second Blow: Catholic Emancipation -- The Emancipation of Peel -- Money and the Millennium -- Ultra Tory Backlash -- The Fall of the Pittite Regime -- The Struggle for Reform -- A Middle-Class Bill, or a case of Landed Reaction? -- Appendix 6.1. The Status of the Borough Freeholders -- Appendix 6.2. Split Voting, Straight Voting, and Plumping -- 7. Contesting mechanical philosophy. The Evolutionary Moment: The Scientific Threat to Belief -- From Romantic Science to Peelite Compromise -- From Unitarianism to Liberal Anglicanism -- The Oxford Movement -- The Middle Ages, the 'Olden Time', and Ideas of Nation -- From Romanticism to Socialism. 8. Politics in the time of Melbourne and Peel, 1833-1846. From Reform to Repeal: The Narrative Resumed -- The Analysis Resumed: Party Politics without Parties -- The Politics of Militant Dissent -- Clouds in the West -- Towards Free Trade: 'Mighty Athlete' or 'Wounded Giant'? -- Towards the Pax Britannica -- Imperial Onset. 9. The condition and reconditioning of England. Social Crisis -- The Origins of Social Policy -- 'System, Method, Science, Economy': Defining the Liberal State -- Chartism -- Class and Community -- Mad Metropolis. 10. Afterwards: 'there are no barbarians any longer'