Gilbert Slater

The Making of Modern England Gilbert Slater

My aim in this book is to set out in language as simple and clear as I can command those facts with regard to the recent history of our country which it is most important forE nglish men and women to know. History may be studied, like any other science, under the influence of a noble curiosity, with no end beyond the attainment of clearer knowledge of the past; but such study is either recreation for hours of leisure, or the task of the specialist historian. For the citizen, historical study with the ulterior object of gaining light in the future and guidance in the present, is an imperative duty; and my desire is to help the growing numbers who feel this. For this reason I have not hesitated in places to express my own opinions on certain controverted questions. I do not entertain either the hope or the wish that any reader should adopt the opinions I express without due examination, though in some cases, I may, for the sake of clearness and brevity, have put them too dogmatically. The claim I make is that the raising of party conflict round any question of economics or politics must not be allowed to exclude that question from the field of scientific research; but that, on the other hand, the fiercer the conflict, the more necessary it is for the ordinary citizen to endeavour to bring to his judgment of the issue the same freedom from bias and loyalty to truth with which the historian studies the bases of the social order of A thens, or the wars of theE gyptian kings. All this is not easy. To paint truly on the canvas a wide-spread landscape, as it is at any moment, is to accomplish a triumph of delicate art.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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