Civil Society in British History: Ideas, Identities, Institutions

Abstract

SOME Oxford dons have been talking to one another and have made a book out of their conversations. It seems that brown-bag lunches between 1999 and 2001 preoccupied themselves with the concept of ‘civil society’ and its relation to British history; and the papers presented, or hares started, on these occasions are brought together here by Professor Jose Harris as a contribution to thinking about this elusive phrase and how it might be considered by historians rather than social or political theorists. Because the venture relies both on empirical research into case-studies of particular aspects of the subject and on the need for sophisticated and systematic conceptualisation, the book shows Oxford historians at their best and worst. On the empirical level one has a collection of good essays—some of them distinguished, as one might expect from so stellar a list of contributors—that offer insights and new material about particular areas of historical research in which those authors specialise. On the conceptual level, as the desperate subtitle implies, the authors frequently remain unsure of what their account has to do with the concept of civil society, and communicate a sense of embarrassment as if they were reluctant singers trapped in a karaoke club.

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