Following up Revolution, longtime Daedalus favorite Peter Ackroyd continues his riveting series on the turbulent, often glorious history of Britain, chronicling the century that proved to be the empire's high water mark. With graceful prose and novelistic attention to detail, the author takes us from the electrifying triumph over Napoleon through the inspiring reign of Victoria, an era in which the rapid growth of industry would facilitate the rise of the middle class even as thousands of others toiled in unimaginable squalor.