This highly praised study traces the province's history from partition in 1921 to today's peace process. Widely acknowledged as the best informed academic observers of Northern Irish politics, the authors look behind the handshakes on the White House lawn and provide a fascinating insight into history as it unfolds in the headlines and on news bulletins.

In May 1983, in the wake of her victory in the Falklands, Mrs Thatcher won the second of her three general election victories. Liverpool, going not for the first or last time against the grain, elected a Labour council that vowed to be different. In an environment of mass unemployment in which Liverpool felt abandoned by an indifferent government, the council resolved to join others across the land in refusing to set a budget that would hurt the poorest. It was at first wildly popular, but the scene soon became set for a battle between the city and central government that would shape the future of Liverpool. Published to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the 1983 election, Militant Liverpool: A City on the Edge sets out an even-handed assessment of events with oral testimonies from many of the key protagonists. Thirty years on, Liverpool has to some extent reinvented itself as a visitor destination, but it is again facing major spending cuts while its deep seated social problems remain. This book sheds new light on what is for some a dark period in the city's past, best forgotten, while for others is a memory of the city that refused to lie down and die and a continuing inspiration.

'A definitive classic field guide [...] Its scope is as magnificent as our countryside itself.' BBC Countryfile Magazine 'This book is perfect for anyone who's travelled through the countryside, scratched their head, and thought, 'what on earth is that thing?''' Tony Robinson Have you ever driven past a lumpy, bumpy field and wondered what made the lumps and bumps? Or walked between two lines of grand trees and wondered when and why they were planted? Entertaining and factually rigorous, Hidden Histories has the answers and will help you decipher the story of Britain's landscape through the features you can see around you. In this spotter's guide, Mary-Ann Ochota arms amateur explorers with the crucial information needed to understand the landscape and spot the human activities that have shaped our green and pleasant land. Photographs and diagrams point out specific details and typical examples to help the curious spotter understand what they're looking at, or looking for. Specially commissioned illustrations bring to life the processes that shaped the landscape (from medieval ploughing to Roman road building). Stand-alone capsules explore interesting aspects of history (like the Highland Clearances or the coming of Christianity). Feature boxes provide definitions of jargon or handy references as required (like a glossary of what different field names mean). Each chapter culminates in a checklist of key details to look for, other things it might be, and gives details of where to find some of the best examples in Britain. From lumps and bumps to stones, lines and villages, Hidden Histories is the must-have spotter's guide to the British landscape.

The OS Historical Map series comprises of Ancient Britain and Roman Britain. Each archaeological period is identified using different symbols and colours to show sites from the Stone Age through to the early Middle Ages against a modern map base, double-sided to cover the whole country. The Ancient Britain map and guide is complemented by a timeline that shows British events in relation to wider history. Key sites of significant historical interest are highlighted using photographs, text and thumbnail mapping from the OS Landranger map series. Additional information, such as a list of archaeological terms, suggested reading and museums to visit, is also included.

Just who did the British think they were? For much of the last 1,500 years, when the British looked back to their origins they saw the looming mythological figure of Brutus of Troy. A great-great-grandson of the love goddess Aphrodite through her Trojan son Aeneas (the hero of Virgil's Aeneid), Brutus accidentally killed his father and was exiled to Greece. He liberated the descendants of the Trojans who lived there in slavery and led them on an epic voyage to Britain. Landing at Totnes in Devon, Brutus overthrew the giants who lived in Britain, laid the foundations of Oxford University and London and sired a long line of kings, including King Arthur and the ancestors of the present Royal Family.Invented to give Britain a place in the overarching mythologies of the Classical world and the Bible, Brutus's story long underpinned the British identity and played a crucial role in royal propaganda and foreign policy. His story inspired generations of poets and playwrights, including Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Dickens and Blake, whose hymn 'Jerusalem' was a direct response to the story of Brutus founding London as the New Troy in the west.Leading genealogist Anthony Adolph traces Brutus's story from Roman times onwards, charting his immense popularity and subsequent fall from grace, along with his lasting legacy in fiction, pseudo-history and the arcane mythology surrounding some of London's best-known landmarks, in this groundbreaking biography of the mythological founder of Britain.

On September 11, 1814, an American naval squadron under Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough defeated a formidable British force on Lake Champlain under the command of Captain George Downie, effectively ending the British invasion of the Champlain Valley during the War of 1812. This decisive battle had far-reaching repercussions in Canada, the United States, England, and Ghent, Belgium, where peace talks were under way. Examining the naval and land campaign in strategic, political, and military terms, from planning to execution to outcome, The Battle of Lake Champlain offers the most thorough account written of this pivotal moment in American history. For decades the Champlain corridor - a direct and accessible invasion route between Lower Canada and the northern United States - had been hotly contested in wars for control of the region. In exploring the crucial issue of why it took two years for the United States and Britain to confront each other on Lake Champlain, historian John H. Schroeder recounts the war's early years, the failed U.S. invasions of Canada in 1812 and 1813, and the ensuing naval race for control of the lake in 1814. To explain how the Americans achieved their unexpected victory, Schroeder weighs the effects on both sides of preparations and planning, personal valor and cowardice, command decisions both brilliant and ill-conceived, and sheer luck both good and bad. Previous histories have claimed that the War of 1812 ended with Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans. Schroeder demonstrates that the United States really won the war four months before - at Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. Through a comprehensive analysis of politics and diplomacy, Schroeder shows that the victory at Lake Champlain prompted the British to moderate their demands at Ghent, bringing the war directly and swiftly to an end before Jackson's spectacular victory in January 1815.