V. _The Labor Party_: POLITICAL MACHINE OR MORAL CRUSADE? 70 VI. _A Quiet Revolution by a Quiet People_ 90 VII. _A Society in Motion_: NEW CLASSES AND NEW HORIZONS 112 VIII. _The British and the World_ 135 IX. _The Atlantic Alliance_: STRENGTHS AND STRESSES 159 X. _The British Economy and Its Problems_ 187 XI. _The British Character and Some Influences_ 217 XII. _Britain and the Future_ 260 INDEX _follows page_ 290 THESE _are the British_ [Illustration] I. _Britain Today_ _They called thee Merry England in old time._ WILLIAM WORDSWORTH _It was never good times in England since the poor began to speculate on their condition._ CHARLES LAMB To begin: the British defy definition. Although they are spoken of as "the British," they are not one people but four. And of these four, three--the Scots, the Welsh, and the Irish--are fiercely jealous of their national identity. The English are less concerned. They have been a nation a very long time, and only on occasions like St. George's Day do they remind themselves, a bit shamefacedly, that the English are the central force of the British people. Of course, if there are Scots, Welsh, or Irish in the company, the English keep this comforting thought to themselves. The variety of the British does not end with nationalities. There are Yorkshiremen and men from Somerset, Cornishmen and people of Durham who differ as much as Texans and Vermonters did in the days before the doubtful blessings of standardization overtook our society. Here we encounter the first of many paradoxes we shall meet in this book. Homogeneity in political thought--basic political thought that is not party allegiance--seems far greater in Britain than in France or the United States. Yet, until the present, the resistance to standardization has been much more stubborn. Institutions and customs survive without undue prodding by Societies for the Preservation of This and That, although there are plenty of the latter nesting in British society. Early in 1954 I was in Inverasdale, roughly five hundred miles north-west of London on the western coast of Scotland. Inverasdale is a small village buffeted by the fierce winds that beat in from the North Atlantic, and its people are independent and God-fearing. John Rollo, a Scots industrialist, had started a small factory in Inverasdale to hold the people in the Highlands, where the population has fallen steadily for a century. Inside the factory John pointed to one of the workers. "That's the bard," he said. "Won a prize at the annual competition this year."