England--begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, star of beloved period dramas, and home of the House of Windsor--is not quite the stalwart island fortress that many of us imagine. Riven by an ancient fault line that predates even the Romans, its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbors; and for the past millennia, it has harbored a class system like nowhere else on Earth.
This bracing tour of the most powerful country...