This book is the first scholarly overview of Anglo-Jewish history covering the century and a half following the political emancipation in 1858 of the Jews in Britain, which is often viewed as a critical point in their history.

V.D. Lipman studies the process by which the originally small Anglo-Jewish community expanded as a result of the mass immigration from Eastern Europe, assisting with the new immigrants' acculturation and smoothing tensions with the larger British society.

While the book deals primarily with the years from 1858-1939, it also offers a perspective on the years prior to "emancipation" as well as a guide through the war years up to the present. The reader is provided with the social, cultural, political, and economic life of a significant Jewish community, and a view of the immigration experience that contrasts with the American pattern.

V.D. Lipman, now deceased, was widely considered the dean of Anglo-Jewish history scholars. His research and writing span the entire range of Anglo-Jewish history, from the Jews in Norwich during the medieval period through the British reaction to the Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.