Reviews

This is a welcome, accessible, and scholarly exploratory study of a field that merits further detailed research. The Catholic Historical Review Machin has done much to map out a territory and to provide a perspective that spans both the century and the wide variety of British church life. The Catholic Historical Review ... a valuable guide to the perspectives of denominational leadership. The Catholic Historical Review Provides a skilful and thorough analysis of the responses of the institutional churches to issues and their relationship to social change in twentieth-century Britain. Journal of Contemporary History This book is certainly an important contribution to the writing of a cultural history of Christian churches in Britain in this century of manifold changes ... a well-written and at times even entertaining history of the transformation of the churches' different attitudes to moral issues ... Machin's volume is certainly an important contribution to the area of the study of cultural history in Britain which is a useful and well-informed source for both church historians and those interested in Christian ethics. A study like this shows that a dialogue between cultural historians and church historians is necessary and in fact possible. Natalie K. Watson, Theology As an accurate, well-documented chronological account it is admirable. Churches and Social Issues in Twentieth-Century Britain, moreover, covers a wide range of Christian opinion. Grace Davie, Times Literary Supplement Making good use of the religious press as well as of the Lambeth Palace Library, he [Machin] offers an accurate, detailed guide to the views and frequent defeats of the defenders of an ecclesiastically-based social ethic, and his work will be a very useful source of reference... a very useful study. Albion