British History

Brittle with Relics is a vital history of Wales undergoing some of the country's most seismic and traumatic events: the disasters of Aberfan and Tryweryn; the rise of the Welsh language movement; the Miners' Strike and its aftermath; and the narrow vote in favour of partial devolution.

For five horrific weeks after Christmas in 1831, Jamaica was convulsed by an uprising of its enslaved people. What started as a peaceful labor strike quickly turned into a full-blown revolt, leaving hundreds of plantation houses in smoking ruins. By the time British troops had put down the rebels, more than a thousand Jamaicans lay dead from summary executions and extrajudicial murder. While the rebels lost their military gamble, their sacrifice accelerated the larger struggle for freedom in the British Atlantic.

For centuries, Britain has told itself and the world that it is an abolitionist nation, one that, unlike the United States, rejected human bondage and dismantled its Atlantic slave empire without tearing itself apart in violence. An abolitionist nation headed by a just, humane monarch who liberated enslaved Africans and recognized their descendants as free and equal subjects of the British Crown. As Prince William put it recently, “We’re very much not a racist family.” When slaveholding nations write their collective history, the enslavers hold the pen.

Ross Kemp has encountered conflict and warfare the world over, broadcasting from some of the most volatile military hot-zones. From meeting the world's deadliest gangsters, to perhaps his hardest assignment of all; embedded with the British Army in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where he witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict and was trained in the tactics they use to stay alive.

Continuing his exploration of British history, Timothy Venning examines the turning points of the period from the death of William I to the reign of Edward III and a little beyond. He discusses the crucial junctions at which history could easily have taken a different turn and analyzes the possible results.

Born the illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy, young William rose against his controversial origins to become a powerful leader. He fought to establish his power as a Duke and then used that power to take England by storm. He faced off against King Harold in the Battle of Hastings, ultimately winning the English crown. William’s legacy as “the Conqueror” is not a nice one—he achieved greatness through brutal means. What he did not only secured his own reign, however, it paved the way for the future of England.

If you want to discover the captivating history of England, then get English History: A Captivating Guide to the History of England and the Victorian Era, which includes two manuscripts that provide information on the history of England from antiquity to the end of World War Two, with a special emphasis on the Victorian Era.

On 16 July 1940, Hitler issued Directive No. 16, setting in motion Operation Sea Lion: his plan to invade England. The success of Operation Sea Lion hinged entirely on the destruction of the RAF and the Royal Navy, but even as Hitler's plans swung into action and England, barely recovered from Dunkirk, rallied her defences, the Battle of Britain began and in just a few months Germany had lost all hope of dominating England's skies and with it, the key to the invasion. On 17 September, 1940, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely and the entire episode faded from memory.

Perhaps no other single day in United States history was as threatening to the survival of the nation as August 24, 1814, when British forces captured Washington, DC. This unique moment might have significantly altered the nation's path forward, but the event and the reasons why it happened are little remembered by most Americans.

With the end of the war, the victorious Germans now occupy a defeated Great Britain. In London, decorated detective John Henry Rossett, now reporting to the Nazi victors, lies in a hospital bed recovering from gunshot wounds. Desperate to avoid blame over the events that led to the shooting, his boss, Ernst Kohler, covers up the incident. But when Koehler's wife and daughter are kidnapped by American spies, the terrified German turns to the only man he trusts to help him.

Economists have called the South Sea bubble "one of the most famous and dramatic episodes in the history of speculation". The company's spectacular fall impacted not only its investors, but public confidence in corporations, investments, and even banking worldwide. How did the directors of one of the most successful joint-stock companies at the time, sought after in social circles as financiers and masterminds, come to be called before Parliament to testify?

A psychological murder mystery set in Edwardian England during the early 1900s. "The Baron's Burden" transports readers to the crumbling manors and imposing estates of aristocratic England, where the veneer of noble life conceals dark secrets and complex intrigues. When Old Lord Windsom unexpectedly inherits his family's decaying estate, he also inherits a legacy of debts and duties. His marriage to the ambitious actress Erin Carson, adds further complications, igniting a series of scandals that ripple through high society. As Erin Carson's schemes to secure her status unfold, a series of ...

Here at last is the true story of the merchant fleet during World War II, the non-fighting service in which 32,000 men died yet whose essential role has never been fully appreciated. The author, himself a member of the service from 1941-47, relates the stories of merchantmen and their crews with unique insight. From the early days of the war to the day of victory on the Rhine, through combined operations in the Mediterranean and at Normandy, the complete operation of the fleet is examined, with vivid accounts of the horrific losses undergone, the heroism of the crews and the sacrifices ...

Over the span of two hundred years, Great Britain established, governed, lost, and reconstructed an empire that embraced three continents and two oceanic worlds. The British ruled this empire by correlating incoming information about the conduct of subjects and aliens in imperial spaces with norms of good governance developed in London. Officials derived these norms by studying the histories of government contained in the official records of both the state and corporations and located in repositories known as archives.

As the Japanese swept across Asia in the early years of World War II, the retreating Allies looked for ways to keep up the fight. In Malaya and Burma, agents had been left behind to stir resistance behind enemy lines, building up anti-Japanese operations from the safety of the jungle. In China, the American Office of Strategic Services helped both Nationalists and Communists in resisting the Japanese.

Volume Two of a five part series telling the story of Great Britain from its earliest beginnings to World War I. Our Island Story, originally published in 1905 and later updated, details the history of Britain up to World War I (including some myths and legends associated with British history). Author H. E. Marshall based the book on her answers to her children's questions about the history of their "home island".

Before the East India Company and before the British Empire, England was a pariah state. Seeking better fortunes, 16th and 17th century merchants, pilgrims and outcasts ventured to the kingdom of the mighty Mughals, attempting to sell coarse woollen broadcloth along the silk roads; playing courtiers in the Mughal palaces in pursuit of love; or simply touring the sub-continent in search of an elephant to ride.

The influence of the comic book has never been greater, from movies to streaming and beyond, but the journey comics took from little-regarded kids' magazines to literary prize-winning books and global franchises turned on a highly unusual group of writers and artists. Few would have expected a small gathering of British comic book fans and creators in the early 'seventies to be a global cultural pivot-point, but this was the start of a disparate movement of punks, dropouts, and disaffected youths who reinvented a medium and became the imaginative heart of a global success story.

Another fascinating title in the fantastically funny history series from the acclaimed Tony Robinson. Tony Robinson takes you on a headlong gallop through time, pointing out all the most important, funny, strange, amazing, entertaining, smelly and disgusting bits about the British! It's history, but not as we know it! Find out everything you ever needed to know in this brilliant, action-packed, fact-filled book.

When people think of the British Royal family, and more specifically where they live, the first image that often pops into mind is that of stately Buckingham Palace, with its changing of the guard and the occasional royal coach leaving or entering. Others may think of the royal country estate of Windsor Castle, a favorite of both Britain's longest-reigning and second longest-reigning monarchs.