This title explores the controversy surrounding the design of the new Foreign Office in London during Britain's Imperial heyday. In 1855 it was decided to build a new block of government offices in London, starting with the Foreign and War Offices. The government offices competition came at what was probably - looking back on it - the zenith of Britain's confidence as a nation and international power. One would expect the mid-Victorians to have felt, firstly, pride in their current national situation; and secondly, the urge to commemorate this in the most important national building to be projected in twenty years. Porter uses the debates surrounding the building of these important new monuments to interrogate the very fabric of British society, culture and nation building. The discussion on so many issues - religion, nationality, empire, history, modernism, truth, morality, gender - quite apart from considerations of 'pure' aesthetics, offers an unusual, perhaps even unique, insight into the relationship between these matters and the 'culture' of the time.

Bernard Porter is Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Newcastle, UK. He is a regular contributor to LRB, TLS, Literary Review, Guardian, History Today, academic journals and has lectured around the world. Alongside this, he has also appeared on national radio and television shows. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden. His book, Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society, and Culture in Britain (2004) won the American Historical Association's Morris D. Forkosch Prize in 2005.

List of Illustrations \ Preface \ 1. The Battle Joined \ 2. A Hybrid Society \ 3. Early Skirmishes \ 4. A Grand and National Work \ 5. Worthy of Our Imperial City \ 6. The Lamp of Morality \ 7. An Architecture for our Age \ 8. Not the most Interesting Public Question of the Day \ 9. A Change for the Worse \ Conclusion \ Bibliography \ Index