Monarchy has been man's natural form of government in almost every civilisation since the dawn of recorded time. Yet, over the past two hundred and fifty years, this historic system has entered into seemingly irreversible decline in favour of the republic across almost all of the world's cultures and regions. Hugh Williams follows and analyses a truly remarkable series of events which started with the American and French revolutions in the late 18th century and which still have not yet run their course. The enduring personal popularity of monarchy, as evidenced by media hunger for royal headlines of any sort, indeed remains a puzzle for today's republican revolutionaries wherever they are. Books on royalty tend to be confined to biographies or specific historical episodes, and rarely has the ongoing monarchy/republican divide been seriously examined as a serious social and political trend in its own right. "Monarchy or Republic" has been written as an in-depth study of the causes of monarchy's decline and why the republic is now the default form of government for most countries. Pen portraits of many of the characters involved in this story are given to lighten up the narrative, but this is essentially a serious book. The book has been written as a continuous read about one of the most striking cultural and political shifts in recent history. hw 30/11/2016
About the Author: Dr Hugh Williams is a historian at heart but was a scientist by profession! He graduated with a B.A., then an M.A., degree from St John's College Oxford in 1959 and gained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Birkbeck College, University of London, in 1964. Much of his subsequent career was spent overseas in Chemistry research and science education. His publications include a number of papers on Chemical Education and his own scientific research. Also a book entitled "Introduction to Organic Chemistry", published first by John Wiley & Sons in 1982 and then, after translation, by the Japanese publisher Kagaku Dojin the following year. After retirement Dr Williams reverted to his vocational roots (again, !)and produced "Monarchy or Republic". Work on this project dates back to as early as the 1960's and the first edition was finally published, with the Canadian publishers Trafford, in 2006. Since then the script has been updated to include events since the millennium and is now available on Kindle and Create Space. Hugh Williams is married, with three children and two grandchildren.