England: A New Era. The History of the Kingdom in the 20th-21st Centuries

England is a country focused both on the past and the future. Throughout its history, it has looked back to the times when "elderly gentlemen spent their days perched with a pipe on the edge of a cart, listening to... the clinking of the hammer on the anvil coming from the village forge." This was a country that had not yet known strikes and demonstrations, gas and electricity, two world wars, and decolonization. The 20th century became a time of great trials and loud victories for England, as well as a period of rapid changes affecting all aspects of life.
The book opens with events of the early 20th century: the end of the Second Boer War, the reign of Edward VII, imperial crises, and World War I. Peter Ackroyd guides the reader through the dreadful years of World War II, which threatened the independence of the island nation, the reign of George VI, the transformation of the empire into the Commonwealth of Nations, and the new Elizabethan era. By the turn of the millennium, which the narrative reaches, ten prime ministers have served during the reign of Elizabeth II, the most notable being Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair. However, the history of England does not cease its course.