Historians commonly depict Edwardian England as a place of great anxiety. Emerging from a long and exhausting conflict against the Boers in South Africa, Edwardians are often perceived as rocked by a profound set of doubts about the future of the British Empire, including the belief that the country was stricken by a malaise, commonly referred to as 'national deterioration' or 'degeneration'. Drawing upon a wide range of popular sources, this study considers the level of middle-class engagement with such strains of pessimistic thought, examining cultural life at both national and regional levels, and across a wide range of topics, including military reform, urban living, the Scouting movement and the 'hooligan' problem, thereby shedding new light on Edwardian England.