Title

The abolition of Britain : from Winston Churchill to Princess Diana

Description

Writing with passion and flair, Hitchens targets the pernicious effects of TV culture, the corruption and decay" of the English language, the loss of politeness, and the "syrupy confessional mood" brought on by the death of Diana, which Hitchens contrasts with the somber national response to the death of Winston Churchill. If there is a term that summarizes everything that has gone wrong in Britain, it is "Tony Blairism," which Hitchens sees as having rewritten England's history, trivialized its journalism, subverted its educational system and cultural standards, and overthrown accepted notions of patriotism, faith, and morality.The New Britain is government by focus group in which people are told what to feel as a way of preventing them from asking how they want to be governed."--BOOK JACKET.

Trascription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers: "Fri 10/20,11 a.m. - Bracketed years 1960's to 2000, Winston Churchill to Princess Di". -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent words and phrases throughout the book. E.g.: Preface to the second edition (p.[vii]): "missing chapter", "homosexuality", "my agent declined book"; p. viii: "potty", "partly Jewish", "bonkers", "the pound"; p.ix-x: "the crown", "EU", "The Lords"; p.[1]: "Tories never hold power again"; p.7: "new types of housing", "TV destroyed old forms of social sanction"; p. 11: "George Orwell", "American culture"; p. 14: "welfare state", "Thatcherism - miserable failure"; p. 15: "2 Britains", "classlessness", "sexual inclusiveness", "an air of a putsch"; p. 43: "Edwardian confidence, Victorian religious faith"; p.[64]: "Schools - the elite, private vs. state"; p.[105]: "Death of the Anglican Church"; p.[144]: "The Left and culture, control of schools, [?], Church, Arts"; p. 149: "Queen in audience"; p. 156, underlined: "Humour and comedy have become a virtual monopoly of the cultural Left, because only they would ever seek to politicize humour in a free society"; p.[190]: "Marriage, divorce, family"; p. 208: "Lady Chatterly", "obscenity"; p. 220: "Working class believe in order"; p.[248]: "Smoking and homosexuals"; p.[263]: "Lord Jenkins"; p. 275: "1940 catastrophe"; p. 308-309: "Northern Ireland", "Tony Blair", "Major retreating from principle"; p.317, underlined: "But if we give up our nationhood, as the government now wants us to do, we will all of us, socialist or conservative, lose the right to influence the fate of our country".

Identifier

944086

189355418X

Creator

Hitchens, Peter

Format

1st U.S. ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

2000

Program air date: December 31, 2000

Publisher

Encounter Books

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Subject

"National characteristics, British--History--20th century."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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