In the twentieth century, the British Crown appointed around a hundred thousand people - military and civilian - in Britain and the British Empire to honours and titles. For outsiders, and sometimes recipients too, these jumbles of letters are tantalizingly confusing: OM, MBE, GCVO, CH, KB, or CBE. Throughout the century, this system expanded to include different kinds of people, while also shrinking in its imperial scope with the declining empire. Through these dual processes, this profoundly hierarchical system underwent a seemingly counter-intuitive change: it democratized. Why and how did the British government change this system? And how did its various publics respond to it? This study addresses these questions directly by looking at the history of the honours system in the wider context of the major historical changes in Britain and the British Empire in the twentieth century. In particular, it looks at the evolution of this hierarchical, deferential system amidst democratization and decolonization. It focuses on the system's largest-and most important-components: the Order of the British Empire, the Knight Bachelor, and the lower ranks of other Orders. By creatively analysing the politics and administration of the system alongside popular responses to it in diaries, letters, newspapers, and memoirs, Tobias Harper shows the many different meanings that honours took on for the establishment, dissidents, and recipients. He also shows the ways in which the system succeeded and failed to order and bring together divided societies.

About the Author
Tobias Harper is an assistant professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University.

Reviews
No reader could come away from this book without appreciating the importance of its subject matter. As Harper shows, state honours are important for several reasons ... Obviously, therefore, this book should be read not only by those particularly interested in state honours, but by a much wider audience. Hopefully it will inspire more studies of this kind. Harper has set a fine example of how this should be done. * Samuel Clark, European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire *
Tobias Harper's book offers a timely reminder that such controversies are not new...Harper rescues what might be thought a frivolous topic and shows its significance in terms of ideas about class, hierarchy, empire and service. * Richard Toye, University of Exeter, TLS *
Harper's book provides an indispensable study of the place of honours in modern British history. It will be of considerable use to historians of British politics, culture, society, and decolonization, alongside researchers interested in decorations and chivalric orders. Indeed, this book's consideration of honours as tools of empire and elite hierarchies ensure that it will remain of interest and relevance to a very diverse audience as British society continues to interrogate its memory and commemoration of the past. * Matthew J. Lord, Aberystwyth University, Twentieth Century British History *
From Servants of the Empire to Everyday Heroes is a very welcome addition to the literature that dispels much of the mystery surrounding the British honours system that nonetheless still gives rise to controversy. * Hugh Clout, University College London, Cercles: An Interdisciplinary Journal of English Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198841180
Author Tobias Harper
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 642g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 164mm * 23mm