This is a general history of England between the accession of George II and the loss of America. The author demonstrates that, though conventionally seen as static and politically stable, the 18th century was an age of vitality and variety. While rapid commercial growth and bourgeois pretensions gave rise to the positive achievements of military success and imperial expansion, tensions and contradictions threatened this success. The author's aim is to demonstrate that the 18th century was strengthened and stretched by the changes to which it was subjected.