Table of Contents
Preface to the 2018 edition xiii
Preface to the 1966 edition xv
1 The Island 7
2 Britannia 9
3 Roman Britain 11
4 Darkness and Dawn 17
5 Alfred and the Vikings 25
6 The Kingdom of England 32
7 1066 39
8 The Conquest: Loss and Gain 44
9 The Norman Kings 48
10 The First Plantagenet 56
11 The End of an Empire 62
12 The Gothic Age 68
13 Towards a United Island 76
14 An Incompetent King 82
15 The Hundred Years War 89
16 The Black Death 95
17 The Great Revolt 100
18 The Fate of Richard II 106
19 The Father of English Poetry 112
20 The Victor of Agincourt 118
21 The Wars of the Roses 123
22 Return to Other: Edward IV 128
23 Violent Interlude: Richard III 132
24 William Caxton, Printer 136
25 Return to Order: The Tudors 140
26 Reformation and Revolution 147
27 A Man For All Seasons 157
28 The Turbulent Decade 163
29 A New Identity 172
30 Amada 178
31 Gloriana's England 185
32 Immortal Shakespeare 193
33 An Untrustworthy Dynasty 200
34 The King's Arcadia 208
35 Three Kingdoms in Crisis 216
36 The British Vitruvius 221
37 War 226
38 The World Upside Down 233
39 A Failed Republic 240
40 A Failed Protectorate 245
41 The Search for Stability 252
42 The Unexpected Revolution 262
43 The Birth of a Great Power 270
44 Instability and Change 276
45 From Magic to Science: Isaac Newton 285
46 The Rule of the Elite 292
47 The Richest Country 300
48 The Pursuit of Happiness 310
49 Reason and Enthusiasm 318
50 Paradise Regained: 'Capability' Brown 323
51 Disintegration and Defeat 329
52 World War and the Invention of Britain 338
53 The New Man: William Wilberforce 350
54 Revolution Averted: The Great Reform Bill 356
55 Country into Town: The Industrial Revolution 364
56 Information and Intervention 375
57 The Final Decades of Aristocratic Rule 383
58 The Lady with the Lamp 392
59 Victorian Britain: The Classless Society 398
60 Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species 410
61 Coming to Terms with Democracy 416
62 Ireland Departs 426
63 Pax Britannica 434
64 Splendid Isolation and War 439
65 Two Uncertain Decades 445
66 Alone 457
67 Utopia Comes and Goes 469
68 Consensus and the Mismanagement of Decline 478
69 Empire to Europe 495
70 A New Beginning? 510
71 The Consumer Society 520
72 'New Britain' 528
73 Postscript: Brexit and Bryond 536
Kings and Queens 543
Prime Ministers 558
Picture Credits 562
Index 00