Main entry:

Mandler, Peter.

Title & Author:

The fall and rise of the stately home / Peter Mandler.

Publication:

Description:

viii, 523 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 476-500) and index.
Introduction: The stately homes and England -- Prelude: Houses of taste (to 1815) -- 1. The Victorian idea of heritage -- 2. Hosts and guests: the opening of the country house -- 3. Philistines, barbarians and aesthetes -- 4. Philistines vs. barbarians: popular politics and the failure of preservation -- 5. 'Splendid paupers': the closing of the country house -- 6. Land without Lords: the nadir of the country house -- 7. Brideshead rehabilitated: Georgian salvage in the 1930s -- 8. The country house and the welfare state -- 9. The country house and the affluent society -- Epilogue: Treasure houses (since 1974).

Summary:

How much do the English really care about this stately homes? In this path-breaking and wide-ranging account of the changing fortunes and status of the stately homes of England over the past two centuries, Peter Mandler melds social, cultural, artistic and political perspectives and reveals much about the relationship of the nation to its past and its traditional ruling elite. Challenging the prevailing view of a modern English culture besotted with its history and its aristocracy, Mandler portrays instead a continuously changing and modernizing society in which both popular and intellectual attitudes towards the aristocracy - and its stately homes - have veered from selective appreciation to outright hostility, and only recently to thoroughgoing admiration.
With great panache, Mandler adds the missing pieces to the story of the country house. Going beyond its architects and its owners, he brings to centre stage a much wider cast of characters - aristocratic entrepreneurs, anti-aristocratic politicians, campaigning conservationists, ordinary sightseers, and votersand a scenario full of incident and of local and national colour. He traces attitudes towards stately homes, beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century when public feeling about the aristocracy was mixed and divided, and criticism of the 'foreign' and 'exclusive' image of the aristocratic country house was widespread. At the same time, interest grew in those older houses that symbolized an olden time of imagined national harmony.
The Victorian period saw also the first mass tourist industry, and a strong popular demand emerged for the right to visit all the stately homes. By the 1880s, however, hostility towards the aristocracy made appreciation of any country house politically treacherous, and interest in aristocratic heritage declined steadily for sixty years. Only after 1945, when the aristocracy was no longer seen as a threat, was a gentle revival of the stately homes possible, Mandler contends, and only since the 1970s has that revival become a triumphant appreciation. He enters the current debate with a discussion of how far people today - and tomorrow - are willing to see the aristocracy's heritage as their own.

Resources:
Table of contents
Table of contents

ISBN:

0300067038
9780300067033
0300078692
9780300078695

Subject:

Architecture and society England History.
Historic buildings Conservation and restoration England History.
Architecture, Domestic Conservation and restoration England History.
Country homes Conservation and restoration England History.
Dwellings Conservation and restoration England History.
Manors Conservation and restoration England History.
Cultural property Protection England History.
Aristocracy (Social class) England History.
Heritage tourism England History.
Art and society England History.
Country life England History.
Social change England History.
Monuments historiques Conservation et restauration Angleterre Histoire.
Architecture domestique Conservation et restauration Angleterre Histoire.
Habitations Conservation et restauration Angleterre Histoire.
Manoirs Conservation et restauration Angleterre Histoire.
Architecture et société Angleterre Histoire.
Tourisme culturel Angleterre Histoire.
Art et société Angleterre Histoire.
Society.
Architecture and society
Architecture, Domestic Conservation and restoration
Aristocracy (Social class)
Art and society
Country homes Conservation and restoration
Country life
Cultural property Protection
Dwellings Conservation and restoration
Heritage tourism
Historic buildings Conservation and restoration
Manors Conservation and restoration
Social change
Adelshaus
Architektur
Baudenkmal
Gentry
Herrenhaus
Soziologie
Landhuizen.
Conservatie.
Restauratie.
Historic buildings Great Britain Conservation and restoration History.
Architecture, Domestic Great Britain Conservation and restoration History.
Country homes Great Britain Conservation and restoration History.
Dwellings Great Britain Conservation and restoration History.
Manors Great Britain Conservation and restoration History.
Cultural property Protection Great Britain History.
Aristocracy (Social class) Great Britain History.
Architecture and society Great Britain History.
Art and society Great Britain History.
Tourism Great Britain History.
England
Großbritannien

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 134630
Call No.: ID DA655.M26 1997; ID:97-B508
Status: Available