Winner of the 1992 Wolfson History Prize given in London for the best history accessible to general readers, this very interesting study of the formation of a national British identity recounts the joining of England, Scotland and Wales. This political, military and social history records how the ruling elite withstood threats from within and without from the Jacobites to the French, the path from Protestantism to profits via trade, war and empire, the making of the British ruling class, the women's sphere, and parliamentary reforms from the act of Union to the beginning of the Victorian Age.  (GBR81, $21.00)