books tagged “British History”

1066 And All That
by W. C. Sellar, R.J. Yeatman

ISBN 1850891796 (1-85089-179-6)
Hardcover, Ulverscroft Large Print Books

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Since its publication in October of 1930, this classic spoof on textbook history has sold four million copies worldwide and has itself become a part of humor history. This anniversary edition is a celebration of this uproarious satire's lingering appeal and is enhanced by brilliant new drawings by cartoonist Stephen Appleby. [via]
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Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
by Bede, Bertram Colgrave, R.A.B. Mynors, Veneabilis Beda

ISBN 0198221738 (0-19-822173-8)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People was completed in 731 and still ranks among the most popular of history books. First published in 1969, Colgrave and Mynors's edition made use for the first time of the mid-eighth-century manuscript now in Leningrad and provided a survey of the extant manuscripts and a new translation; it also brought up to date Plummer's invaluable edition. This revised edition takes into account J.M. Wallace-Hadrill's Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary (Oxford Medieval Texts, 1988), enabling the reader to use the two in conjunction. [via]
More editions of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People:
- Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: ISBN 0198222025 (0-19-822202-5)
  Hardcover, Clarendon P.
- Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: ISBN 0198221738 (0-19-822173-8)
  Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837
by Linda Colley

ISBN 0300107595 (0-300-10759-5)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr

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In this compelling book, Linda Colley recounts how a new British nation was invented in the wake of the Act of Union between England and Wales and Scotland in 1707. Skillfully interweaving political, military, and social history, Colley enlivens her story with colorful vignettes of the heroes and politicians, artists and writers, and ordinary women and men who helped forge a British national identity. Her book is a major contribution to our understanding of Britain`s past and to the contemporary debate about the shape and identity of Britain in the future. [via]
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Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII, 1547-1558
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0224038338 (0-224-03833-8)
Hardcover, J. Cape

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The royal family may have its problems these days, but as Alison Weir reminds us in this cohesive and impeccably researched book, the nobility of old England could be both loveless and ruthless. Weir, an expert in the period and author of a book on Henry's VIII wives, focuses on the children of Henry VIII who reigned successively after his death in 1547: Edward VI, Mary I ("Bloody Mary") and Elizabeth I. The three shared little--living in separate homes--except for a familial legacy of blood and terror. This is exciting history and fascinating reading about a family of mythic proportions. [via]
More editions of Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII, 1547-1558:
- Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII, 1547-1558: ISBN 0224038338 (0-224-03833-8)
  Hardcover, J. Cape
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The Children of Henry VIII
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0345407865 (0-345-40786-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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At his death in 1547, King Henry VIII left four heirs to the English throne: his only son, the nine-year-old Prince Edward; the Lady Mary, the adult daughter of his first wife Katherine of Aragon; the Lady Elizabeth, the teenage daughter of his second wife Anne Boleyn; and his young great-niece, the Lady Jane Grey. In her brilliantly compelling new book, Alison Weir, author of four highly acclaimed chronicles of English royalty, paints a unique portrait of these four extraordinary rulers, examining their intricate relationships to each other and to history.

Weir opens her narrative with the death of Henry and the accession of the boy king Edward VI. Often portrayed as weak and sickly, Edward, in fact had a keen intelligence and a flair for leadership. Had he not contracted a fatal disease at the age of fifteen, Edward might have become one of England's great kings. Instead, his brief reign was marked by vicious court intrigue that took the monarchy to the verge of bankruptcy.

Edward's death in 1553 plunged England into chaos, and it was in this explosive atmosphere that the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey was crowned Queen of England. A fragile, intellectual girl, Jane was only too happy to end her nine-day rule when the rioting English populace proclaimed Mary their true and rightful sovereign. Despite her innocence, Jane was brutally executed at the age of sixteen.

Mary's reign was marked by her savage persecution of heretics (non-Catholics) and by the emotional turbulence of her marriage to King Philip II of Spain. Weir describes the mounting tensions of the final days of Mary's bloody reign, as the shrewd, politically adroit Elizabeth quietly positions herself to assume royal power. The Children of Henry VIII closes with Elizabeth's accession and the commencement of one of the longest, and most spectacularly successful, reigns in English history.

Deeply engrossing, written with grace and clarity, The Children of Henry VIII combines the best of history and biography. Weir's devoted readers will recognize this as her finest book yet. [via]
More editions of The Children of Henry VIII:
- The Children of Henry VIII: ISBN 0345391187 (0-345-39118-7)
  Hardcover, Ballantine Books
- The Children of Henry VIII: ISBN 0345407865 (0-345-40786-5)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Churchill: A Biography
by Roy Jenkins

ISBN 0452283523 (0-452-28352-3)
Softcover, Plume

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Winston Churchill was querulous, childish, self-indulgent, and difficult, writes English historian Roy Jenkins. But he was also brilliant, tenacious, and capable--in short, "the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street." Jenkins's book stands as the best single-volume biography of Churchill in recent years.
Marked by the author's wide experience writing on British leaders such as Balfour and Gladstone and his tenure as a member of Parliament, his book adds much to the vast library of works on Churchill. While acknowledging his subject's prickly nature, Jenkins credits Churchill for, among other things, recognizing far earlier than his peers the dangers of Hitler's regime. He praises Churchill for his leadership during the war years, especially at the outset, when England stood alone and in imminent danger of defeat. He also examines Churchill's struggle to forge political consensus to meet that desperate crisis, and he sheds new light on Churchill's postwar decline. --Gregory McNamee [via]
More editions of Churchill: A Biography:
- Churchill: A Biography: ISBN 0374123543 (0-374-12354-3)
  Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
- Churchill: A Biography: ISBN 0452283523 (0-452-28352-3)
  Softcover, Plume
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Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples
by Winston Churchill, Henry Steele Commager

ISBN 0517422832 (0-517-42283-2)
Hardcover, Greenwich House

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An authoritative survey of the history of English-speaking peoples throughout the world combines intriguing biographical profiles--of Alfred the Great, Victoria, Lincoln, and other notables--with an account of the key events and issues of the era. [via]
More editions of Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples:
- Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples: ISBN 0517422832 (0-517-42283-2)
  Hardcover, Greenwich House
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The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation
by Bede the Venerable, John Stevens

ISBN 0460004794 (0-460-00479-4)
Hardcover, J M Dent & Sons Ltd

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The venerable Bede (AD 672-735) was not the first historian of the British Isles, but he was the first to to list and master his documentary and oral sources. For a man who travelled little, he showed a great depth of understanding about the outside world, informing himself by commissioning others to copy documents in the Papal Regista and various episcopal and monastic archives. This new edition has been carefully revised by Gerrish Gray and is beautifully typeset in Bembo type. [via]
More editions of The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation:
- The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation: ISBN 0460004794 (0-460-00479-4)
  Hardcover, J M Dent & Sons Ltd
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Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation 1723
by Bede

ISBN 0766169448 (0-7661-6944-8)
Softcover, Kessinger Pub Co

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This work presents the ecclesiastical history of the English nation from the coming of Julius Caesar into the island in the 60th year before the incarnation of Christ, until the year of our Lord 731, to which is prefixed a life of Bede. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty, faded or difficult to read. Written in Old English. [via]
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- Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation 1723: ISBN 0766169448 (0-7661-6944-8)
  Softcover, Kessinger Pub Co
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Ecclesiastical History of the English People With Bede's Letter to Egbert and Cuthberts Letter on the Death of Bede
by Bede, David Hugh Farmer

ISBN 014044565X (0-14-044565-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Written in AD 731, Bede's work opens with a background sketch of Roman Britain's geography and history. It goes on to tell of the kings and bishops, monks and nuns who helped to develop Anglo-Saxon government and religion during the crucial formative years of the English people. Leo Sherley-Price's translation brings us an accurate and readable version, in modern English, of a unique historical document. This edition now includes Bede's Letter to Egbert concerning pastoral care in early Anglo-Saxon England, at the heart of which lay Bede's denunciation of the false monasteries; and The Death of Bede, an admirable eye-witness account by Cuthbert, monk and later Abbot of Jarrow, both translated by D. H. Farmer. [via]
More editions of Ecclesiastical History of the English People With Bede's Letter to Egbert and Cuthberts Letter on the Death of Bede:
- Ecclesiastical History of the English People With Bede's Letter to Egbert and Cuthberts Letter on the Death of Bede: ISBN 014044565X (0-14-044565-X)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People/the Greater Chronicle Bede's Letter to Egbert
by Bede, Judith McClure, Roger Collins

ISBN 0192838660 (0-19-283866-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Starting with the invasion of Julius Caesar in the fifth century, Bede recorded the history of the English up to his own day in 731 A.D. A scholarly monk working in the north-east of England, Bede wrote the five books of his history in Latin. The Ecclesiastical History is his most famous work, and this edition provides the authoritative Colgrave translation, as well as a new translation of the Greater Chronicle, never before published in English. His Letter to Egbert gives his final reflections on the English Church just before his death. This is the only edition to include all three texts, and they are illuminated further by a detailed introduction and explanatory notes. [via]
More editions of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People/the Greater Chronicle Bede's Letter to Egbert:
- The Ecclesiastical History of the English People/the Greater Chronicle Bede's Letter to Egbert: ISBN 0192829122 (0-19-282912-2)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- The Ecclesiastical History of the English People/the Greater Chronicle Bede's Letter to Egbert: ISBN 0192838660 (0-19-283866-0)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0345434870 (0-345-43487-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, eleanor of aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the middle ages. Despite the fact she lived in an age in which women were regarded as little more than chattel, eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In this beautifully written new biography, alison weir, author of five widely acclaimed chronicles of england's royal rulers, paints a vibrant portrait of this truly exceptional woman, and provides new insights into her intimate life.born in 1122 into the sophisticated and cultured court of poitiers, eleanor came of age in a world of luxury, intrigue, bloody combat, and unbridled ambition. At only fifteen, she inherited one of the great fortunes of europe--the prize duchy of aquitaine--yet her father had been shrewd enough to realize that her future security lay in a powerful marriage. Consequently the sensual duchess submitted to a union with the handsome but sexually withholding louis vii, the teenage king of france. The marriage endured for fifteen fraught years, until eleanor finally succeeded in having it annulled--only to enter an even stormier match with the aggressively virile, hot-tempered henry of anjou, who would soon ascend to the english throne as henry ii.as weir traces the fascinating intersection of public and private lives in europe's twelfth-century courts, eleanor comes to life as a complex, boldly original woman who transcended the mores of society. Eventually, after enduring henry's flagrant infidelities, she showed herself a formidable and dangerous enemy of the king's interests by plotting to overthrow him with their sons henry, richard, and geoffrey. [via]
More editions of Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life:
- Eleanor of Aquitaine : A Life: ISBN 0345405404 (0-345-40540-4)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
- Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life: ISBN 0345434870 (0-345-43487-0)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Elizabeth the Queen
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0224044141 (0-224-04414-1)
Hardcover, J. Cape

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More editions of Elizabeth the Queen:
- Elizabeth the Queen: ISBN 0224044141 (0-224-04414-1)
  Hardcover, J. Cape
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Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne
by David Starkey

ISBN 0060959517 (0-06-095951-7)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic, and successful monarchs. Elizabeth usually is imagined as the icy, untouchable figure, re-created memorably on screen by Bette Davis and Dame Judi Dench, but that vision of Elizabeth ignores the turbulent years of her early life, from her birth as the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in 1533 until her accession to the throne in 1558 after the death of her sister Mary. It is these early years that are the subject of David Starkey's fascinating Elizabeth, which was written to accompany the television series about her life.
Starkey argues that Elizabeth, in her first 25 years, "had experienced every vicissitude of fortune and every extreme of condition. She had been Princess and inheritrix of England, and bastard and disinherited; the nominated successor to the throne and an accused traitor on the verge of execution; showered with lands and houses, and a prisoner in the Tower". He draws on his skills as a respected Tudor historian to produce a deft account of the religious, political, and dynastic maelstrom of mid-16th-century England that reads "like a historical thriller." The book carefully picks its way through the finer points of contemporary religious conflict and the peculiarities of Tudor court ceremony, while exploring also the formation of Elizabeth's character in relation to a murdered mother, a charismatic father, a tortured sister, and a predatory guardian. Highly readable, and written with verve and pace, this is a fascinating account of the young Elizabeth. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne:
- Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne: ISBN 0060184973 (0-06-018497-3)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne: ISBN 0060959517 (0-06-095951-7)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power
by Niall Ferguson

ISBN 0465023290 (0-465-02329-0)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group

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Book summary:
Niall Ferguson's compelling tour de force, Empire, was published to coincide with a British TV series. Ferguson, author of The Pity of War and The Cash Nexus, does not so much provide a synoptic survey of the British empire since the 17th century, as an arresting argument about why it arose, and how it fell. Ferguson's emphasis throughout is on the pursuit of economic profit and military might.
Piracy overseas and a taste for sugar and spice at home combined with an unerring ability to vanquish rival European powers, such as the Dutch and French, in the dash for stash and status across the globe. But Ferguson is also alive to the peculiarities of British dominion: the manly and Christian civil service--less than a thousand strong--who ruled India, missionaries such as Livingstone, who explored and mapped as they preached, and the barons of empire--Rhodes, Curzon, and Kitchener--who found in empire an outlet for their homoeroticism.
The book is brilliant and persuasive on trade and buccaneering before 1750, on India, on the late Victorian imperial mentalité, and on the two world wars, but less convincing on the empire of white settlement, and strangely silent on the most difficult colony of all, Ireland. In the end, Ferguson's penchant for polemic gets the upper hand--the book closes with a controversial balance sheet of the gains and losses of the British imperial experience--but he provides a riveting read nonetheless. --Miles Taylor [via]
More editions of Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power:
- Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power: ISBN 0465023282 (0-465-02328-2)
  Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
- Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power: ISBN 0465023290 (0-465-02329-0)
  Softcover, Perseus Books Group
Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot
by Antonia Fraser

ISBN 0385471904 (0-385-47190-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Our term "guy," slang for any man, comes from the name of Guy Fawkes, the alleged ringleader of the bungled plot to blow up King James I and the subject of Bonfire Night, the odd English holiday celebrated on November 5 by burning the execrable Guy in effigy. This and other facts tumble from the pages of this fascinating account of the Gunpowder Plot, written by the distinguished novelist and historian Antonia Fraser. Fraser delves into English religious history to show the harsh persecution of Roman Catholics under Jacobean rule and how James I disappointed those Catholics who hoped for a more liberal reign. [via]
More editions of Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot:
- Faith and Treason : The Story of the Gunpowder Plot: ISBN 0385471890 (0-385-47189-0)
  Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
- Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot: ISBN 0385471904 (0-385-47190-4)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
Faith and Treason: The Gunpowder Plot
by Antonia Fraser

ISBN 0385256205 (0-385-25620-5)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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More editions of Faith and Treason: The Gunpowder Plot:
- Faith and Treason: The Gunpowder Plot: ISBN 0385256205 (0-385-25620-5)
  Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
by Amanda Foreman

ISBN 0375753834 (0-375-75383-4)
Softcover, Modern Library

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Georgiana Spencer was, in a sense, an 18th-century It Girl. She came from one of England's richest and most landed families (the late Princess Diana was a Spencer too) and married into another. She was beautiful, sensitive, and extravagant--drugs, drink, high-profile love affairs, and even gambling counted among her favorite leisure-time activities. Nonetheless, she quickly moved from a world dominated by social parties to one focused on political parties. The duchess was an intimate of ministers and princes, and she canvassed assiduously for the Whig cause, most famously in the Westminster election of 1784. By turns she was caricatured and fawned on by the press, and she provided the inspiration for the character of Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's famous play The School for Scandal. But her weaknesses marked the last part of her life. By 1784, for one, Georgiana owed "many, many, many thousands," and her creditors dogged her until her death.
Biographer Amanda Foreman describes astutely the mess that surrounded the personal relationships of the aristocratic subculture (Georgiana and the duke engaged for many years in a ménage à trois with Lady Elizabeth Fraser, who inveigled her way into the duke's bed and the duchess's heart). Foreman is, by her own admission, a little in love with her subject, which can lead to occasional lapses of perspective, but generally it adds zest to a narrative built on, rather than burdened by, scholarship, that is at once accessible and learned. An impressive debut, in every sense. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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The Gunpowder Plot: Terror & Faith in 1605
by Antonia Fraser

ISBN 0753814013 (0-7538-1401-3)
Hardcover, Phoenix

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With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot. 'Told with impressive scholarship and panache...The result is a narrative that is clear, balanced, and builds to its denouement with a sense of pace and tension worthy of a John le Carre novel' John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph [via]
More editions of The Gunpowder Plot: Terror & Faith in 1605:
- The Gunpowder Plot: Terror & Faith in 1605: ISBN 0753814013 (0-7538-1401-3)
  Hardcover, Phoenix
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A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 Bc-Ad1603
by Simon Schama

ISBN 0786866756 (0-7868-6675-6)
Hardcover, Miramax

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What do you get when you combine the resources and ethos of the BBC with the literary panache of one of the world's best narrative historians? The answer is Simon Schama's A History of Britain, the first volume of which accompanies the BBC-History Channel series of the same name. In a beautifully written and thoughtfully crafted book, studded with striking portraits, pictures, and maps, Schama, the bestselling author of books on European cultural history such as The Embarrassment of Riches and Citizens, as well as 1999's Rembrandt's Eyes, has managed to be both conventional and provocative.
He tells the official version of Britain's island story--from Roman Britain, through the Norman conquest, the struggles of the Henrys and Richards with their barons and clerics, Edward I and the subjugation of Wales, King Death (the plague), and on to the Henrician reformation, before closing with the remarkable reign of the virgin queen, Elizabeth I. But, while sticking to a script familiar to anyone who sat up and listened in history lessons at school, Schama brings it all alive, with memorable prose--Simon de Montfort's rebel parliament is described as inaugurating the "union between patriotism and insubordination"; with Henry VIII, Schama says, "you could practically smell the testosterone." And with fine sensitivity, too, particularly on the symbolism of buildings, memorials, language, and ceremonies, and on the complex relations between England and her Celtic and Catholic neighbors. If history must have gloss, then let it be written and presented like this. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 Bc-Ad1603:
- A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 Bc-Ad1603: ISBN 0786866756 (0-7868-6675-6)
  Hardcover, Miramax
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A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2000
by Simon Schama

ISBN 0771079222 (0-7710-7922-2)
Hardcover, McClelland & Stewart Ltd

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The key to understanding the nature of Simon Schama's contribution in his original and imaginative A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire, 1776-2000 lies in his use of the indefinite article in the title. This is no standard history. Schama's many fans know him to be an innovator, a groundbreaker in the best sense of the term. He overturned tired historical constructs in his study of the French Revolution; he saw the world of art from a different perspective in Rembrandt's Eyes; and he suggested a completely new historical methodology in Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations). It should come as no surprise to readers that this, his third volume of the history of Britain written for the BBC Television series, is an unconventional account. To be sure, we find Queen Victoria and Sir Winston Churchill, but they share space both with a host of previously little-known figures and with others whose contributions may not at first seem to be intimately connected to the main strands of British history.
Schama's business is with people, and to this end he introduces his readers to the likes of obscure authors and critics such as Anna Barbaud and Elizabeth Gaskell, and to colonials like Robert and Kate Bartrum. Through their stories we learn about historical forces like social reform and imperialism. And while Schama still pays attention to leading lights, he places these figures in broader contexts. Thus George Orwell becomes part of the fabric of British socialism in the middle of the 20th century: "Nothing could be more British--all right, more English--than for George Orwell to insist that to have a future, a free future at any rate, presupposes keeping faith with the past." Schama keeps faith with this past and offers strong opinions about reform, the Victorian age, imperialism, conflict, and the career of Sir Winston Churchill. This unique and personal history is strongly recommended. --William Newbigging [via]
More editions of A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2000:
- A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2000: ISBN 0771079222 (0-7710-7922-2)
  Hardcover, McClelland & Stewart Ltd
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A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2002
by Simon Schama

ISBN 0786868996 (0-7868-6899-6)
Hardcover, Hyperion Books

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Book summary:
Simon Schamas dramatic, broad-ranging, and immensely readable epic history of Britain reaches its triumphant conclusion in this third and final volume, which stretches from the American Revolution to the present.

The Fate of Empire tells the eventful and exhilarating story of Britains rise and fall as an imperial power, from the political turmoil of the 1770s to the struggle of present day leaders to find a way to make a different national future. The volume also examines the Romantic generation, the role of women in Victorian England, industrialization, and the liberal empire from Ireland to India, which promised material improvement, but delivered coercion and famine. As in the previous volumes, Schama vividly portrays the lives of extraordinary personalities Queen Victoria, Churchill, Dickens, and ordinary individuals including the author of the first British travel guide, and Elizabeth Anderson, the first woman doctor.

Finally, Schama asks an essential question: what kind of Britain can hold together when its island isolation and its imperial dominion have both vanished? An examination of the legacy of the British ideal of freedom is at the heart of this entertaining and well-researched book. With The Fate of Empire, Simon Schama has proven himself, again, as a masterful writer of narrative history. [via]
More editions of A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2002:
- A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2002: ISBN 0786868996 (0-7868-6899-6)
  Hardcover, Hyperion Books
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History of Britain: The Wars of the British, 1603 - 1776
by Simon Schama

ISBN 0786867523 (0-7868-6752-3)
Hardcover, Hyperion Books

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Book summary:
Inside these pages lies the bloody epic of liberty, the British Iliad.
The second volume of Simon Schama's A History of Britain brings the histories of Britain's civil wars -- full of blighted idealism, shocking carnage, and unexpected outcomes -- startlingly to life. These conflicts were fought unsparingly between the nations of the islands -- Ireland, England, and Scotland -- and between parliament and the crown. Shattering the illusion of a "united kingdom," they cost hundreds of thousands of lives: a greater proportion of the population than died in the First World War.
When religious passion gave way to the equally consuming passion for profits, it became possible for the pieces of Britain to come together as the spectacularly successful business enterprise of "Britannia Incorporated." And in a few generations that business state expanded in a dizzying process that transformed what had been an obscure, off-shore footnote to Europe's great powers into the main event -- the most powerful empire in the world.
Yet somehow, it was the "wrong empire." The British considered it a bastion of liberty, yet it was based on military force and the enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Africans. In America, the emptiness of British claims to protect "freedom" was thrown back into the teeth of colonial governors and redcoat soldiers, while the likes of Sam Adams and George Washington inherited the mantle of Cromwell.
Simon Schama grippingly evokes the horror of the battle, famine, and plague; the flames of burning cities; the pathos of broken families, with fathers and sons forced to choose opposing sides. But he also captures the intimacies of palace and parliament and the seductions of profit and pleasure. Geniuses like John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, and Benjamin Franklin stalk vividly through his pages, but so do Scottish clansmen, women pamphleteers, and literate, eloquent African slaves like Olaudah Equiano. [via]
More editions of History of Britain: The Wars of the British, 1603 - 1776:
- History of Britain: The Wars of the British, 1603 - 1776: ISBN 0786867523 (0-7868-6752-3)
  Hardcover, Hyperion Books
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History of Kings of Britain
by Geoffrey Monmouth

ISBN 0460005774 (0-460-00577-4)
Hardcover, J M Dent & Sons Ltd

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- History of Kings of Britain: ISBN 0460005774 (0-460-00577-4)
  Hardcover, J M Dent & Sons Ltd
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A History of the English Church and People
by Beda Vemerabilis

ISBN 0140440429 (0-14-044042-9)
Softcover, Penguin USA

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Book summary:
Spine Taped. Corner of Front Cover Cut off. Binding Broken, Some Pages Loose. Edges of Pages Damaged by Small Tears..Softback,Ex-Library,with usual stamps markings, ,in fair condition, suitable as a reading copy, ,341pages. [via]
More editions of A History of the English Church and People:
- A History of the English Church and People: ISBN 0140440429 (0-14-044042-9)
  Softcover, Penguin USA
History of the English Church and People
by Bede

ISBN 0760765510 (0-7607-6551-0)
Hardcover, Barnes & Noble Books

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Book summary:
Christianity History [via]
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- History of the English Church and People: ISBN 0880290420 (0-88029-042-0)
  Hardcover, Barnes & Noble, Incorporated
- The History of the English Church and People: ISBN 0760765510 (0-7607-6551-0)
  Hardcover, Barnes & Noble Books
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History of the English Speaking Peoples
by Winston Churchill

ISBN 1566198135 (1-56619-813-5)
Softcover, Barnes & Noble

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Book summary:
Title: Winston S. Churchill A History of the English Speaking Peoples Author: Winston S Churchill Publisher: Dorset Press 1956 4 volume complete set by WINSTON S. CHURCHILL: The Birth of Britain - The New World - The Age of Revolution - The Great Democracies [via]
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History of the Kings of Britain
by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Lewis Thorpe

ISBN 0140441700 (0-14-044170-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Completed in 1136, "The History of the Kings of Britain" traces the story of the realm from its supposed foundation by Brutus to the coming of the Saxons some two thousand years later. Vividly portraying legendary and semi-legendary figures such as Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin the magician and the most famous of all British heroes, King Arthur, it is as much myth as it is history and its veracity was questioned by other medieval writers. But Geoffrey of Monmouth's powerful evocation of illustrious men and deeds captured the imagination of subsequent generations, and his influence can be traced through the works of Malory, Shakespeare, Dryden and Tennyson. [via]
More editions of History of the Kings of Britain:
- History of the Kings of Britain: ISBN 052547014X (0-525-47014-X)
  Softcover, Penguin USA
- History of the Kings of Britain: ISBN 0140441700 (0-14-044170-0)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The History Today Companion to British History
by Juliet Gardiner, Neil Wenborn

ISBN 1855852616 (1-85585-261-6)
Softcover, Collins & Brown

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Book summary:
Six British historians contribute to a comprehensive dictionary which not only is a reference work for events, people and places from 43 AD, but also acknowledges that history is as much about the writing of what happened as what actually did happen. It also includes information on historical concepts and controversy. The contributors are Dr David Bates (University of Wales, College of Cardiff), John Gillingham (London School of Economics), Dr Diarmaid McCulloch (University of Bristol and University College London), Joanna Innes (Somerville College, Oxford), Dr David Englander (Open University) and Dr John Stevenson (Worcester College, Oxford). [via]
More editions of The History Today Companion to British History:
- The History Today Companion to British History: ISBN 1855851784 (1-85585-178-4)
  Hardcover, Collins & Brown
- The History Today Companion to British History: ISBN 1855852616 (1-85585-261-6)
  Softcover, Collins & Brown
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The Isles: A History
by Norman Davies

ISBN 0195148312 (0-19-514831-2)
Softcover, Oxford University Press, Incorporated

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When did British history begin, and where will it all end? These controversial issues are tackled head-on in Norman Davies's polemical and persuasive survey of the four countries that in modern times have become known as the British Isles. Covering 10 millennia in just over a thousand pages, from "Cheddar Man" to New Labour, Davies shows how relatively recently the English state was formed--no earlier than Tudor times--and shows, too, how a sense of Britishness emerged only with the coming of empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. A historian of Poland, and the author of an acclaimed history of Europe, Davies is especially sensitive to the complex mixing and merging of tribes and races, languages and traditions, conquerors and colonized that has gone on throughout British history and that in many ways makes "our island story" much more like that of the rest of Europe than we usually think. Many myths of the English are dispelled in this book, and many historians are taken to task for their blinkered Anglocentrism. But the book ends on an upbeat note, with Davies welcoming Britain's return to the heart of Europe at the dawn of the new millennium. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of The Isles: A History:
- The Isles: A History: ISBN 0195134427 (0-19-513442-7)
  Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- The Isles : A History: ISBN 0195148312 (0-19-514831-2)
  Softcover, Oxford University Press, Incorporated
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The Life of Elizabeth I
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0345425502 (0-345-42550-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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The long life and powerful personality of England's beloved Virgin Queen have eternal appeal, and popular historian Alison Weir depicts both with panache. She's especially good at evoking the physical texture of Tudor England: the elaborate royal gowns (actually an intricate assembly of separate fabric panels buttoned together over linen shifts), the luxurious but unhygienic palaces (Elizabeth got the only "close stool"; most members of her retinue relieved themselves in the courtyards), the huge meals heavily seasoned to disguise the taste of spoiled meat. Against this earthy backdrop, Elizabeth's intelligence and formidable political skills stand in vivid relief. She may have been autocratic, devious, even deceptive, but these traits were required to perform a 45-year tightrope walk between the two great powers of Europe, France and Spain. Both countries were eager to bring small, weak England under their sway and to safely marry off its inconveniently independent queen. Weir emphasizes Elizabeth's precarious position as a ruling woman in a man's world, suggesting plausibly that the single life was personally appealing as well as politically expedient for someone who had seen many ambitious ladies--including her own mother--ruined and even executed for just the appearance of sexual indiscretions. The author's evaluations of such key figures in Elizabeth's reign as the Earl of Leicester (arguably the only man she ever loved) and William Cecil (her most trusted adviser) are equally cogent and respectful of psychological complexity. Weir does a fine job of retelling this always-popular story for a new generation. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of The Life of Elizabeth I:
- The Life of Elizabeth I: ISBN 0345405331 (0-345-40533-1)
  Hardcover, Ballantine Books
- The Life of Elizabeth I: ISBN 0345425502 (0-345-42550-2)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Lives Of The Kings & Queens Of England
by Antonia Fraser

ISBN 0520224604 (0-520-22460-4)
Softcover, Univ of California Pr

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Book summary:
An illustrated survey of the dynasties of English royalty from the establishment of the monarchical power base by the early Norman kings through to the present Queen. [via]
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The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England
by 1975.Da28.1 New York : Knopf

ISBN 0394495578 (0-394-49557-8)
Hardcover, Random House Inc

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The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England surveys the epic saga of England's monarchs, spanning ten great dynasties, from the invading Normans of 1066 to the House of Windsor today. Edited by noted historian Antonia Fraser, the book features eight-specialist contributors exploring the complex characters of many royal figures, including Victoria and the enigmatic Richard III. Vividly narrated by stage and screen veteran Wanda McCaddon, this is a glittering celebration of almost 1,000 years of English history, told through the lives and deeds of England's kings and queens. [via]
More editions of The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England:
- The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England: ISBN 0394495578 (0-394-49557-8)
  Hardcover, Random House Inc
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London: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd

ISBN 1856197166 (1-85619-716-6)
Hardcover, Chatto & Windus

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Book summary:
Here are two thousand years of Londons history and folklore, its chroniclers and criminals and plain citizens, its food and drink and countless pleasures. Blackfriars and Charing Cross, Paddington and Bedlam. Westminster Abbey and St. Martin in the Fields. Cockneys and vagrants. Immigrants, peasants, and punks. The Plague, the Great Fire, the Blitz. London at all times of day and night, and in all kinds of weather. In well-chosen anecdotes, keen observations, and the words of hundreds of its citizens and visitors, Ackroyd reveals the ingenuity and grit and vitality of London. Through a unique thematic tour of the physical city and its inimitable soul, the city comes alive. [via]
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Mary Queen of Scots
by Antonia Fraser

ISBN 038531129X (0-385-31129-X)
Softcover, Delta

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Mary Queen of Scots passed her childhood in France and married the Dauphin to become Queen of France at the age of sixteen. Widowed less than two years later, she returned to Scotland as Queen after an absence of thirteen years. Her life then entered its best known phase: the early struggles with John Knox and the unruly Scottish nobility; the fatal marriage to Darnley and his mysterious death; her marriage to Bothwell, the chief suspect, that led directly to her long English captivity at the hands of Queen Elizabeth; the poignant and extraordinary story of her long imprisonment that ended with the labyrinthine Babington plot to free her, and her execution at the age of forty-four. [via]
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Mary Queen of Scots
by Outlet Book Company Staff, Random House Value Publishing Staff

ISBN 0517414244 (0-517-41424-4)
Hardcover, Random House Value Publishing

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Mary Queen of Scots passed her childhood in France and married the Dauphin to become Queen of France at the age of sixteen. Widowed less than two years later, she returned to Scotland as Queen after an absence of thirteen years. Her life then entered its best known phase: the early struggles with John Knox and the unruly Scottish nobility; the fatal marriage to Darnley and his mysterious death; her marriage to Bothwell, the chief suspect, that led directly to her long English captivity at the hands of Queen Elizabeth; the poignant and extraordinary story of her long imprisonment that ended with the labyrinthine Babington plot to free her, and her execution at the age of forty-four. [via]
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- Mary Queen of Scots: ISBN 0517414244 (0-517-41424-4)
  Hardcover, Random House Value Publishing
Mary Queen of Scots and the Historians
by Antonia Fraser

ISBN 0950244376 (0-9502443-7-6)
Hardcover, Royal Stuart Society

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- Mary Queen of Scots and the Historians: ISBN 0950244376 (0-9502443-7-6)
  Hardcover, Royal Stuart Society
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The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain
by Kenneth O. Morgan

ISBN 0192893262 (0-19-289326-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Book summary:
An illustrated history of Britain since the Roman occupation, which traces its political, social, economic and cultural development. [via]
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The Princes in the Tower
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0345391780 (0-345-39178-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
"Comprehensive and insightful, THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER offers a unique perspective on a profound mystery." Faye KellermanDespite five centuries of investigation by historians, the sinister deaths of the boy king Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, remain one of the most fascinating murder mysteries in English history. Did Richard III really kill the young princes, as is commonly believed, or was the murderer someone else entirely? Carefully examining every shred of contemporary evidence as well as the dozens of modern accounts, Weir reconstructs the entire chain of events leading to the double murder to arrive at a conclusion Sherlock Holmes himself could not dispute. [via]
More editions of The Princes in the Tower:
- The Princes in the Tower: ISBN 0345383729 (0-345-38372-9)
  Hardcover, Ballantine Books
- The Princes in the Tower: ISBN 0345391780 (0-345-39178-0)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0345453204 (0-345-45320-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
Isabella arrived in London in 1308, the spirited twelve-year-old daughter of King Philip IV of France. Her marriage to the heir to Englands throne was designed to heal old political wounds between the two countries, and in the years that followed, she would become an important figure, a determined and clever woman whose influence would come to last centuries. But Queen Isabellas political machinations led generations of historians to malign her, earning her a reputation as a ruthless schemer and an odious nickname, the She-Wolf of France.

Now the acclaimed author of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Alison Weir, reexamines the life of Isabella of England, historys other notorious and charismatic medieval queen. Praised for her fair looks, the newly wed Isabella was denied the attentions of Edward II, a weak, sexually ambiguous monarch with scant taste for his royal duties. As their marriage progressed, Isabella was neglected by her dissolute husband and slighted by his favored male courtiers. Humiliated and deprived of her income, her children, and her liberty, Isabella escaped to France, where she entered into a passionate affair with Edward IIs mortal enemy, Roger Mortimer. Together, Isabella and Mortimer led the only successful invasion of English soil since the Norman Conquest of 1066, deposing Edward and ruling in his stead as co-regents for Isabellas young son, Edward III. Fate, however, was soon to catch up with Isabella and her lover.

Many mysteries and legends have been woven around Isabellas story. She was long condemned as an accessory to Edward IIs brutal murder in 1327, but recent research has cast doubt on whether that murder even took place.

Isabellas reputation, then, rests largely on the prejudices of monkish chroniclers and prudish Victorian scholars. Here Alison Weir gives a startling, groundbreaking new perspective on Isabella, in this first full biography in more than 150 years. In a work of extraordinary original research, Weir effectively strips away centuries of propaganda, legend, and romantic myth, and reveals a truly remarkable woman who had a profound influence upon the age in which she lived and the history of western Europe.

Engaging, vibrant, alive with breathtaking detail and unforgettable characters, Queen Isabella is biographical history at its finest. [via]
More editions of Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England:
- Queen Isabella : Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England: ISBN 0345453190 (0-345-45319-0)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
- Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England: ISBN 0345453204 (0-345-45320-4)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
by Lawrence James

ISBN 031216985X (0-312-16985-X)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
Spanning four centuries and six continents, James' masterpiece examines the imperial experience and its legacy with tremendous insight and finesse. His original work has now been abridged and illustrated in full color throughout with over 400 meticulously researched photographs, paintings, maps and portraits to create a comprehensive and visually stunning portrait of the era.

Great Britain's geopolitical role has undergone many radical changes over the last four centuries. Once a maritime superpower and ruler of half the world, Britain now occupies an isolated position as an economically fragile island often at odds with her European neighbors. Spanning the years from 1600 to the present day, this critically acclaimed book combines detailed scholarship with readable popular history.
[via]
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Six Wives of Henry VIII
by Alison Weir

ISBN 0802136834 (0-8021-3683-4)
Softcover, Grove Pr

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Book summary:
"Brilliantly written and meticulously researched...Alison Weir is adept at bringing to life these historical figures."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Henry VIII is perhaps England's most infamous monarch, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. He was married to six distinctly different women, and in this richly detailed and meticulously researched history, these remarkable, often misunderstood queens come to life once again. Their full histories and personalities emerge at last, giving voices to the six extraodinary women who left their distinctive marks on the English throne and thereby changed the course of British history. [via]
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Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
by David Starkey

ISBN 0060005505 (0-06-000550-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived CATHERINE OF ARAGON: the pious Spanish Catholic who suffered years of miscarriages and failed to produce a male heir...ANNE BOLEYN: the pretty, clever, French-educated Protestant whose marriage to Henry changed England forever...JANE SEYMOUR: the demure and submissive contrast to Anne Boleyn's radical and vampish style...ANNE OF CLEVES: 'the mare of Flanders' whose short marriage to the overweight Henry followed a farcical 'beauty contest'...CATHERINE HOWARD: the flirtatious teenager whose adulteries made a fool of the ageing king...CATHERINE PARR: the shrewd, religiously radical bluestocking who outlived him...In this dazzling study, David Starkey gives us a richly textured picture of daily life at the Tudor Court from the woman's point of view. Above all, he establishes the interaction of the private and the public, and demonstrates how the Queens of Henry VIII were central in determining political policy. [via]
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Six Wives :the Queens of Henry VIII: The Queens of Henry VIII
by David Starkey

ISBN 0701172983 (0-7011-7298-3)
Hardcover, Chatto & Windus

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Book summary:
Six Wives is a masterful work of history that intimately examines the rituals of diplomacy, marriage, pregnancy, and religion that were part of daily life for women at the Tudor Court. Weaving new facts and fresh interpretations into a spellbinding account of the emotional drama surrounding Henry's six marriages, David Starkey reveals the central role that the queens played in determining policy. With an equally keen eye for romantic and political intrigue, he brilliantly recaptures the story of Henry's wives and the England they ruled. [via]
More editions of Six Wives :the Queens of Henry VIII: The Queens of Henry VIII:
- Six Wives :the Queens of Henry VIII: The Queens of Henry VIII: ISBN 0701172983 (0-7011-7298-3)
  Hardcover, Chatto & Windus
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Ten Sixty-Six and All That
by Sellar

ISBN 0525470255 (0-525-47025-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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- Ten Sixty-Six and All That: ISBN 0525470255 (0-525-47025-5)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Wars of the Roses
by Alison Weir, Phebe Kirkham

ISBN 0345404335 (0-345-40433-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
Lancaster and York. For much of the fifteenth century, these two families were locked in battle for control of the British monarchy. Kings were murdered and deposed. Armies marched on London. Old noble names were ruined while rising dynasties seized power and lands. The war between the royal House of Lancaster and York, the longest and most complex in British history, profoundly altered the course of the monarchy. In The Wars of the Roses, Alison Weir reconstructs this conflict with the same dramatic flair and impeccable research that she brought to her highly praised The Princes in the Tower.

The first battle erupted in 1455, but the roots of the conflict reached back to the dawn of the fifteenth century, when the corrupt, hedonistic Richard II was sadistically murdered, and Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king, seized England's throne. Both Henry IV and his son, the cold warrior Henry V, ruled England ably, if not always wisely--but Henry VI proved a disaster, both for his dynasty and his kingdom. Only nine months old when his father's sudden death made him king, Henry VI became a tormented and pathetic figure, weak, sexually inept, and prey to fits of insanity. The factional fighting that plagued his reign escalated into bloody war when Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, laid claim to the throne that was rightfully his--and backed up his claim with armed might.

Alison Weir brings brilliantly to life both the war itself and the historic figures who fought it on the great stage of England. Here are the queens who changed history through their actions--the chic, unconventional Katherine of Valois, Henry V's queen; the ruthless, social-climbing Elizabeth Wydville; and, most crucially, Margaret of Anjou, a far tougher and more powerful character than her husband,, Henry VI, and a central figure in the Wars of the Roses.

Here, too, are the nobles who carried the conflict down through the generations--the Beauforts, the bastard descendants of John of Gaunt, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known to his contemporaries as "the Kingmaker"; and the Yorkist King, Edward IV, a ruthless charmer who pledged his life to cause the downfall of the House of Lancaster.

The Wars of the Roses is history at its very best--swift and compelling, rich in character, pageantry, and drama, and vivid in its re-creation of an astonishing, dangerous, and often grim period of history. Alison Weir, one of the foremost authorities on the British royal family, demonstrates here that she is also one of the most dazzling stylists writing history today. [via]
More editions of The Wars of the Roses:
- The Wars of the Roses: ISBN 0345391179 (0-345-39117-9)
  Hardcover, Ballantine Books
- The Wars of the Roses: ISBN 0345404335 (0-345-40433-5)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life Innineteenth-Century England
by Daniel Pool

ISBN 0671882368 (0-671-88236-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
From fox-hunting to whist, this lively guide to the intricate manners, mores, social distinctions, sports, games, and sundry peculiarities of 19th-century England is a grand resource for anyone interested in Albion at its most arcane, eccentric, and imperial. Line drawings. [via]
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- What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life Innineteenth-Century England: ISBN 0671793373 (0-671-79337-3)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century Enland: ISBN 0671882368 (0-671-88236-8)
  Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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World Turned Upside Down
by Christopher Hill

ISBN 0140218203 (0-14-021820-3)
Softcover, Penguin USA

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Book summary:
Great Penguin classic. [via]
More editions of World Turned Upside Down:
- World Turned Upside Down: ISBN 0140218203 (0-14-021820-3)
  Softcover, Penguin USA
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World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution
by Christopher Hill

ISBN 0140137327 (0-14-013732-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Within the English revolution of the mid-seventeenth century which resulted in the triumph of the protestant ethic - the ideology of the propertied class - there threatened another, quite different, revolution. Its success 'might have established communal property, a far wider democracy in political and legal institutions, might have disestablished the state church and rejected the protestant ethic. In "The World Turned Upside Down" Christopher Hill studies the beliefs of such radical groups as the Diggers, the Ranters, the Levellers and others, and the social and emotional impulses that gave rise to them. The relations between rich and poor classes, the part played by wandering 'masterless' men, the outbursts of sexual freedom, the great imaginative creations of Milton and Bunyan - these and many other elements build up into a marvellously detailed and coherent portrait of this strange, sudden effusion of revolutionary beliefs. [via]
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