[4] In 1940 C. S. Lewis taught him political theory but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War, where he volunteered for non-combatant duties (due to ill-health) in the Royal Air Force.
[5] He spent periods of inactivity reading political theory, including Bertrand Russell's Power: A New Social Analysis and R. G. Collingwood's New Leviathan.
Christie accepted Neale's offer and replied: "Mr A. J. P. Taylor here has said he will procure me an introduction to Professor Namier in order that I may get advice on my proposed subject for research".
[8][10] Christie paid tribute to Namier in the book's preface: To Sir Lewis Namier I owe many thanks: first, when I had only met him in his books, for prompting in me a strong desire to know whether his picture of politics and party structure at the accession of George III was still valid for the period some twenty years later, when the political system was under strain as a result of defeat in the American War of Independence; and, since this study began, for his guidance and encouragement.[11]A.
[14] According to Negley Harte, Christie told him that he had become an historian "because he wanted to understand why for centuries intelligent people had believed in Christianity".
[8] However, Christie said in his unpublished autobiography that he had tried at Oxford to steer clear of topics involving "the to me wearisome wranglings of past generations over religious issues".
[19] What defeated revolutionary forces in Britain, Christie asserted, was "a deep-rooted pragmatism" rooted in "the slow evolution of the English common law".
[20] He ended the work by quoting John of Gaunt's "sceptred isle" speech from William Shakespeare's Richard II.
[21] J. C. D. Clark said that Christie's theme in his Ford Lectures of a "deeply-shared sense of national identity" was perhaps "an unwelcome message to some of his audience", whose reaction was "often extremely cool".