SOURCE: “Élie Halévy,” in The English Historical Review, Vol. LIII, No. CCIX, January, 1948, pp. 79-87.

In the following review, Butler examines the principal themes of Halévy's study of England from 1841 to 1852, including the triumphs of free trade and the middle class.

When Professor Élie Halévy brought out the third volume of his well-known history in 1923, it was his intention to complete the work in four more volumes, of which the next to appear would be entitled ‘La politique libre-échangiste (1841-1865)’, and the last would bring the story down to 1895. The volumes, however, which in fact appeared next, in 1926 and 1932, were not those contemplated in 1923 but the two parts of an epilogue covering the years 1895-1914. In the second of these volumes the author declared his impatience to return to the task of writing the history of ‘cette grande époque au cours de laquelle le...