Tolkien and the Myth of Decline

*The Lord of the Rings* Reading Challenge bonus, week five

Isengard after the ents have unleashed the flood, as pictured by Alan Lee in the Centenary Edition.

In 2004, historian George Bernstein, an older colleague from whom I learned a great deal, published a book called The Myth of Decline: The Rise of Britain since 1945. Those who lived through the London Calling years of the late 70s and early 80s may have b…