A medieval life

A Medieval Life offers a biography of one woman, a portrait of her world, and an introduction to historical method. A Medieval Life offers a biography of one woman, a portrait of her world, and an introduction to historical method. Written in a clear and accessible style, it reworks a well-loved ...

A short history of parliament

A comprehensive history of parliament in the British Isles from the earliest times, covering all aspects of parliament as an institution.A Short History of Parliament is a comprehensive institutional history, not a political history of parliament, though politics is included where, as frequently ...

A thirst for empire

How the global tea industry influenced the international economy and the rise of mass consumerismTea has been one of the most popular commodities in the world. For centuries, profits from its growth and sales funded wars and fueled colonization, and its cultivation brought about massive changes—i...

Alfred's wars: sources and interpretations of anglo-saxon warfare in the viking age

Collection of source material and crucial interpretations, offering a comprehensive guide to Anglo-Saxon warfare.Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title. The warfare of the late Anglo-Saxon period had momentous consequences for the development of the English state following Alfred th...

Alibis of empire

Alibis of Empire presents a novel account of the origins, substance, and afterlife of late imperial ideology. Karuna Mantena challenges the idea that Victorian empire was primarily legitimated by liberal notions of progress and civilization. In fact, as the British Empire gained its farthest reac...

An introduction to english runes

Introduction to the use of runes as a practical script for a variety of purposes in Anglo-Saxon England.Runes are quite frequently mentioned in modern writings, usually imprecisely as a source of mystic knowledge, power or insight. This book sets the record straight. It shows runes working as a p...

Anne clifford's autobiographical writing, 1590–1676

Anne Clifford describes the dramatic and tragic events of her life in the seventeenth century. Of how she danced in the masques of Inigo Jones, experienced both joy and abuse in her two marriages, lost and gained an inheritance, and successfully defended her rights against kings and armies. All t...

Arts and minds

A history of the extraordinary society that has touched all aspects of British lifeFrom its beginnings in a coffee house in the mid-eighteenth century, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce has tried to improve British life in every way imaginable. It has soug...

Autonomy, solidarity, possibility

Six decades of revolutionary pragmatism from Britain’s most famous living anarchist.

Breeding

The Enlightenment commitment to reason naturally gave rise to a belief in the perfectibility of man. Influenced by John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many eighteenth-century writers argued that the proper education and upbringing—breeding—could make any man a member of the cultural elite. Yet ...

Britain’s empires

A history of the many different British Empires – the Old Colonial System (1600-1776), the Empire of Free Trade (1776-1870), the New Imperialism (1870-1945), Decolonisation (1945-1990) and the era of humanitarian intervention (1990-2020). Britain’s Empires aims to tell the story of the colonial p...

British fascism

Fascism is inherently duplicitous, claiming one thing whilst being committed to something else. In examining this dishonesty, it is essential to distinguish between the surface arguments in fascist discourse and the underlying ideological commitments. Analyzing contemporary fascism is particularl...

Building anglo-saxon england

Shortlisted for the Wolfson History PrizeA radical rethinking of the Anglo-Saxon world that draws on the latest archaeological discoveriesThis beautifully illustrated book draws on the latest archaeological discoveries to present a radical reappraisal of the Anglo-Saxon built environment and its ...

Burma '44

Celebrated historian of World War II James Holland chronicles the astonishing Allied victory at the Battle of the Admin Box in Burma (now Myanmar), a turning point of the war in the Far East In February 1944, in one of the most astonishing battles of World War II, a ragtag collection of British c...

Carried away

Asserting that a history of shopping was, until recently, a history of women, Rachel Bowlby trains her eye on the evolution of the modern shopper. She uses a compelling blend of history, literary analysis, and cultural criticism to explore the rise of department stores and supermarkets of the Uni...

Celestial aspirations

A unique look at how classical notions of ascent and flight preoccupied early modern British writers and artistsBetween the late sixteenth century and early nineteenth century, the British imagination—poetic, political, intellectual, spiritual and religious—displayed a pronounced fascination with...

Christ in celtic christianity

A new interpretation of Celtic Christianity, supported by images of Christ taken from manuscripts, metalwork and sculpture, and showing how it departed from continental practice largely due to a differing perception and application of Pelagianism.Christ in Celtic Christianity gives a new interpre...

Common land in britain

The first authoritative survey of the history of common land in Great Britain from the medieval period to present day.More than a million hectares of Britain has the status of common land, most of it consisting of semi-natural environments of mountain, moorland, wetland or heath. Formerly much m...

Converting britannia

A compelling study of Anglican Evangelicalism in the Age of Wilberforce revealing its potency as a political machine whose reach extended into every area of the British establishment and its nascent Empire.SHORTLISTED for the EHS Book Prize 2020 The moralism that characterized the decades either...

Dreamworlds of race

How transatlantic thinkers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries promoted the unification of Britain and the United StatesBetween the late nineteenth century and the First World War an ocean-spanning network of prominent individuals advocated the unification of Britain and the Unit...

Dress accessories, c. 1150- c. 1450

Dweller in shadows

The first comprehensive biography of an extraordinary English poet and composer whose life was haunted by fighting in the First World War and, later, confinement in a mental asylumIvor Gurney (1890–1937) wrote some of the most anthologized poems of the First World War and composed some of the gre...

Empire and history writing in britain c.1750–2012

This books offers both a narrative and an analysis of the influence of British imperial involvements on history writing since 1750.

English castles

A comprehensive and concise guide to all medieval English castles of which something can still be seen today, ranging from the massive keeps which still dominate the landscape to grassy earthworks and Border pele towers, and spanning the centuries from the Norman Conquest to the accession of the ...

English local history

The classic guide to exploring English local history, brought up to date and expanded.This is a book for anyone wanting to explore local history in England. It summarises, in an accessible and authoritative way, current knowledge and approaches, bringing together and illustrating the key sources ...

English nationalism, brexit and the anglosphere

This book analyses the elite project behind Brexit, and considers its framework within the political traditions of English nationalism. Far from being ‘Little Englanders’, Brexiteers sought to lessen the rupture of leaving the European Union by suggesting a return to alliances with true friends a...

Environment, society and landscape in early medieval england

The origins of England's regional cultures are here shown to be strongly influenced by the natural environment and geographical features.The Anglo-Saxon period was crucial in the development of England's character: its language, and much of its landscape and culture, were forged in the period bet...

Fighting at sea in the eighteenth century

Naval warfare is vividly brought to life, from first contact through how battles were won and lost to damage repair.Our understanding of warfare at sea in the eighteenth century has always been divorced from the practical realities of fighting at sea under sail; our knowledge of tactics is largel...

From scottsboro to munich

Presenting a portrait of engaged, activist lives in the 1930s, From Scottsboro to Munich follows a global network of individuals and organizations that posed challenges to the racism and colonialism of the era. Susan Pennybacker positions race at the center of the British, imperial, and transatla...

How novels think

Nancy Armstrong argues that the history of the novel and the history of the modern individual are, quite literally, one and the same. She suggests that certain works of fiction created a subject, one displaying wit, will, or energy capable of shifting the social order to grant the exceptional per...

Inglorious empire

Inglorious Empire tells the real story of the British in India and reveals how Britain’s rise was built upon its plunder of India.

Intellectual radicalism after 1989

Left-wing intellectuals in Britain and the US had long repudiated the Soviet regime. Why was the collapse of the Eastern Bloc experienced as a shock that destabilised their identities and political allegiances then? What happened to a collective project that had started out to formulate a sociali...

Islam in victorian britain

An entertaining biography of Victorian Britain’s most notable Muslim, Abdullah Quilliam, the Sheikh of Islam of the British Isles.

Knives and scabbards

Catalogue of knives and scabbards found in London excavations, with discussion of date, technology, decoration and function.Knives were vital to medieval man for a whole range of uses, from the domestic to the wider social context: Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian burials bear silent witness to this dep...

Law, liberty and the constitution

A new approach to the telling of legal history, devoid of jargon and replete with good stories, which will be of interest to anyone wishing to know more about the common law - the spinal cord of the English body politic.Throughout English history the rule of law and the preservation of liberty ha...

Legacy of empire

A highly readable, dispassionate account of Britain’s imperial legacy in the Middle East, and its role in shaping the modern history of Palestine and Israel. An essential primer on the historical roots of the conflict.

Making an industrial revolution

Medieval st andrews

First extended treatment of the city of St Andrews during the middle ages.St Andrews was of tremendous significance in medieval Scotland. Its importance remains readily apparent in the buildings which cluster the rocky promontory jutting out into the North Sea: the towers and walls of cathedral, ...

Modernity's corruption

Nicholas Hoover Wilson develops a new account of the changing category of corruption by examining the English East India Company and its transformation from a largely commercial enterprise to a militarized offshoot of British empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Myths and legends of the british isles

Tales from the dawn of Christianity to the age of the Plantagenets reveal a mythology in its time as potent as that of the classical world.The British Isles have a long tradition of tales of gods, heroes and marvels, hinting at a mythology once as relevant to the races which settled the islands a...

Prose edda

The Prose Edda is part cosmic origin story, part poetic handbook, and part mythic encyclopedia.

Realms of royalty

This collection introduces new directions in researching contemporary European monarchies by suggesting theoretical approaches to recent developments and new perspectives on royal families' interactions with their subjects. With its interdisciplinary analyses, the book is a timely answer to the r...

Rebel alliances

A philosophical perspective on anarchism in Britain today.

Rebel women between the wars

An original history of 13 women from the interwar years, who successfully challenged male dominance in a wide range of occupations from mountaineering, to motoring and humanitarian activism. Through their diaries, letters and other personal writings, we see the strategies they used to break free ...

Reform, revolution and direct action amongst british miners

In this riveting monograph, Ives offers a new perspective on one of the most volatile periods in British labor history.