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The English country house has been on the brink of ruination since at least the start of World War I\u2014or perhaps the first chug of the Industrial Revolution\u2014or was it the end of serfdom \u2026? Propping up this dying, decadent institution has been a favored pastime of preservationists, architecture buffs, and earls for about as long as the institution has been around. In his new book, Noble Ambitions, historian Adrian Tinniswood peels back the wallpaper to show how these ancestral piles survived both World War II and the sunset of the British Empire\u2014and in some ways, are more relevant than they ever were.

Go beyond the episode:

• Adrian Tinniswood\u2019s Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the English Country House After World War II
• For the completionist, his previous book: The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939
• Revisit the famed 1974 Victoria & Albert exhibition \u201cThe Destruction of the Country House,\u201d or go visit Agecroft Hall and Gardens in Richmond, Virginia, one of several country homes dismantled and reassembled on this side of the Atlantic. In England? Check out Sudbury Hall, which gets a shout out in the episode
• The first bestselling nonfiction book about the country house? Mark Girouard\u2019s Life in the English Country House
• Read Sam Knight\u2019s essay about the National Trust\u2019s recent report on colonialism and slavery: \u201cBritain\u2019s Idyllic Country Houses Reveal a Darker History\u201d
• If you haven\u2019t yet, you simply must watch Downtown Abbey

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