Britain Before the Reform Act : Routledge : 9780582299085 : 058229908X : 10 Jul 2008 : In the years1815-1832, Britain came close to revolution. Fewer than twenty years separate the Battle of Waterloo from the passing of the ?Great' Reform Act but during this period Britain's political elite was challenged as never before. In rising to that challenge, the political elite attempted, with considerable success, to ensure that Britain engineered that most perilous of transitions, from a less complex and more deferential society into a modern urban and industrial one, while avoding political revolution. In this extensively revised 2nd edition Evans engages with a welter of new material and fresh interpretations. The book sheds light both on the challenges to existing political and social authority and why those challenges were seen off. Evans examines: ·         The composition of Britain's political elite and how this elite coped with the problems thrown up by a society urbanising and mo