Volume 5 examines the role played by religion and government in the development of the British state between 1780 and 1945. Four chapters consider religion and the remaining two government and governing. The opening two chapters consider the pressures facing Anglicanism, Nonconformity and Roman Catholicism between the late-eighteenth century and the Religious Census of 1851 and the different ways in which these pressures led to change in the ways these religions were organised and responded to changing social and economic conditions. Chapter 3 examines the question of whether religion was in decline from the 1850s through to the outbreak of war in 1914 and whether this represented a ‘crisis of faith’. In addition to looking at Christian churches, there is a section examining religious practices among Black migrants and settlers, the gradual development of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities after 1850 and the development of their religious institutions and the Jewish communities. There is also a section of the role played by religion in the campaign for women’s suffrage after 1880. The final chapter on religion considers the role of faith in the decades of conflict and tension between 1914 and 1945.

The two chapters on government and governing look at the ways in which the organisation framework of government developed from the 1780s and particularly after the 1830s when constitutional reform move the United Kingdom from a limited parliamentary system to one in which democratic values were becoming increasingly important through franchise reform at local and national levels resulting in the vote being available to women and men over 21 in 1928. The final chapter explores the ways in which and the arguments behind the growing role of the state in people’s lives through for instance, poor law reform and developments in factory reform, public health reform and education leading towards the creation of a ‘national health service’ in the immediate aftermath of victory over Germany in 1945.

This book is available in paper and hardback and as a Kindle.