An authoritative, one stop overview of the history of sports in Britain from the earliest times to the present. This remarkable volume should become the standard reference source for the history of British sport. It covers the sociology and psychology of sports, major events such as the cricket Test Matches and Wimbledon, key issues such as racism and drugs, and sport in drama, literature, and the media.

First published in 1984, Toynbee Hall, The First Hundred Years is not just a centenary study, but a personal contribution to the continuing history of Toynbee Hall, which is the Universities' settlement in East London, and an institution that has inspired respect and affection. Its pioneering role as a residential community living and working in the heart of one of London's most deprived areas has been maintained. Called a 'social workshop' by its late chairman John Profumo, Toynbee Hall promotes ventures such as Free Legal Advice, the Workers Educational Association, and the Whitechapel Art Gallery. The book looks at the social changes that have taken place over the 100 years since Toynbee Hall was founded in 1884, but also notes curious parallels, with persistent patterns of poverty, deprivation, squalor and racial separation which characterise the area. Questions about the facts and perceptions of poverty, the nature of community, the visual as well as the social environment, and the roles of voluntary, local and national statutory policy still require answers.

First published in 1984, Toynbee Hall, The First Hundred Years is not just a centenary study, but a personal contribution to the continuing history of Toynbee Hall, which is the Universities' settlement in East London, and an institution that has inspired respect and affection. Its pioneering role as a residential community living and working in the heart of one of London's most deprived areas has been maintained. Called a 'social workshop' by its late chairman John Profumo, Toynbee Hall promotes ventures such as Free Legal Advice, the Workers Educational Association, and the Whitechapel Art Gallery. The book looks at the social changes that have taken place over the 100 years since Toynbee Hall was founded in 1884, but also notes curious parallels, with persistent patterns of poverty, deprivation, squalor and racial separation which characterise the area. Questions about the facts and perceptions of poverty, the nature of community, the visual as well as the social environment, and the roles of voluntary, local and national statutory policy still require answers.

Now available in five volumes, Asa Briggs' History of British Broadcasting in the UK provides an exhaustive chronicle of the BBC's activities, achievements, and personnel - from the early days of wireless broadcasting and the Corporation's foundation, through its establishement as a part of home life and role in the Second World War, to the end of its monopoly and attempts to reflect the needs of a changing society.
Competition, the latest volume in Asa Briggs' monumental history, covers a period of 20 years, from the end of the BBC's monopoly in 1955 to the mid 1970s and the volumes it looks at the history of the BBC in an age of competition, so inevitably contains much fascinating material on the independent' radio and television companies as well as the BBC. There are chapters on the reporting of the Suez Crisis, the Pilkington Committee, the governorship of Hugh Greene (the man Mary Whitehouse said was responsible for the collapse which characterized the sixties and seventies'), Radio Piracy, the introduction of new technologies, and the BBC Jubilee.

This is the first part of a five-volume history of broadcasting in the UK. Together the volumes give an authoritative account of the rise of broadcasting in this country. Though naturally largely concerned with the BBC it does give a general history of broadcasting, not simply an institutional history of the BBC.
The Birth of Broadcasting covers early amateur experiments in wireless telephony in America and in England, the pioneer days at Writtle in Essex and elsewhere, and the coming of organized broadcasting and its rapid growth during the first four years of the BBC's existence as a private Company before it became a public Corporation in January 1927. Briggs describes how and why the Company was formed, the scope of its activities and the reasons which led to its conversion from a business enterprise into a national institution.
The issues raised between 1923 and 1927 remain pertinent today. The hard bargaining between the Post Office, private wireless interests, and the emergent British Broadcsting Company is discussed in illuminating details, together with the remarkable opposition with which the Company had to contend in its early days. Many sections of the opposition, including a powerful section of the press, seemed able to conceive of broadcasting only as competing with their own interests, never as complementing or enlarging them. One of the main themes of this volume is that of the gradual forging of the instruments of public control, and particular attention is paid to the Crawford Report (1926) from which the Corporation arose. During this period all the characteristics of the Corporation first appeared - particularly its reputation for publc service and impartiality.
Briggs also examines the background of wireless as an invention and considers its impact on society. He has much to say about personalities and programmes as well as policies.

This is the third part of a five-volume history of broadcasting in the UK, giving an authoritative account of the rise of broadcasting in this country.
This volume covering the period from 1939 to 1945, is concerned not only with the impact of the Second World War on the structure, organization, and programmes of the BBC, itself a fascinating subject; it also deals directly with the role of the BBC outside as well as inside Britain within the context of the general political and military history of the war; an exciting, complicated, sometimes controversial role, strangely neglected by historians.

This major new book provides a sparkling and detailed account of classical, modern, and popular music throughout Queen Victoria's long reign.It completes the acclaimed series of classic studies by Professor Briggs, published as Victorian Cities, Victorian People, and Victorian Things. Lord Briggs has written the work with the music specialist Janet Lovegrove.The approach is deliberately chronological. It observes the music scene - both metropolitan and provincial - at twenty-year intervals. It particularly shows how contemporaries themselves perceived music in 1837, 1857, 1877 and 1897. These twenty-year intervals bring out the scale of change and the balance between continuities and contrasts at each point in the story. The intervening decades are more briefly explored. An Epilogue (1901) completes the picture.The authors trace the repertory of opera, of orchestral, choral, chamber and popular music. They show the performers, theatres, halls and rooms. They provide many illuminating stories of the lives and work of the composers, writers and critics, publishers, teachers and lecturers, who were keen to bring music to the many rather the few.London was linked to the provinces by cathedral, church or festival, and education. Key factors were the dissemination of printed music, the musical evangelism of the sight-singing movement, the national distribution achieved by the railways, and the implementation of a national educational system from 1870 onwards. An important element in this was the contribution made to 'progress' by provincial cities, most often through the proliferation of Festivals.No less important were the efforts of English musicians, composers, performers and teachers alike, to achieve status in a country where there was a strong amateur presence.There was also pressure from below, and a difference - often an indifference - in the role and interests of government, local and national. However, the dynamic steps taken to found modern music institutions are traced. Comparisons are made (as did the Victorians) between English and foreign performers and composers, the 'giants' of the past and present. The last chapters show the breaking away, never complete, from 'foreign domination' and the identification of an English musical 'renaissance.'The book is well illustrated. These pictures complete the overwhelming impression of an era teeming with energy and ambition, in music as in all else. The era laid the foundations of the musical heritage and standards we enjoy today.

The Age of Improvement has long established itself as a classic of modern historical writing. Widely read and quoted it has had a unique influence on teaching and research. This second edition draws on the great volume of new research - produced by Lord Briggs amongst others, since its original publication. The book stresses both the underlying unity and the rich variety of the age, and raises fundamental issues about a period of crucial change in British history - industrialisation, war, constitutional change and the attitudes of politicians towards it, political development, and, not least, society and culture. In the background are the new economic powers based on the development of a coal and iron technology; in the foreground, new social and political problems and new ways of tackling them. The author also discusses perceptions of, and reactions to, changing circumstances, the influence of religion and science on national life, and changing styles in art and literature. The story ends, not with a full stop but with a question mark. Could improvement be maintained? Could balance and progress continue to be reconciled?

Now covering the whole of Europe from the French Revolution to the present day, this major new edition has been completely revised and brought up-to-date. The approach embraces the whole continent from both national and regional perspectives, and combines political survey with grass roots 'people' history. Bringing this history vividly to life, the authors use a very broad range of sources including memoirs, archives, letters, songs and newspapers. In particular, there is new treatment of the following themes: Religion and the modern Papacy Immigration in Europe and relationships between minority and majority groups UNESCO The European Bill of Rights The seeds of conflict in Bosnia and Croatia Europe's relations with the wider world, with particular attention to the Middle East and Japan.

Bethlem Hospital, popularly known as "Bedlam", is a unique institution. Now seven hundred and fifty years old, it has been continuously involved in the care of the mentally ill in London since at least the 1400s. As such it has a strong claim to be the oldest foundation in Europe with an unbroken history of sheltering and treating the mentally disturbed. During this time, Bethlem has transcended locality to become not only a national and international institution, but in many ways, a cultural and literary myth. The History of Bethlem is a scholarly history of this key establishment by distinguished authors, including Asa Briggs and Roy Porter. Based upon extensive research of the hospital's archives, the book looks at Bethlem's role within the caring institutions of London and Britain, and provides a long overdue re-evaluation of its place in the history of psychiatry.

The second edition of The Age of Improvement, 1783-1867, stresses both the unity and the rich variety of the age. Lord Briggs also discusses perceptions of, and reactions to, changing circumstances, the influence of religion and science on national life, and changing styles in art and literature.

The fundamental issues raised in the book relate to period of crucial change in British history—industrialization, war, constitutional change and the attitudes of politicians towards it, political development, and, not least, society and culture.

Now 750 years old, Bethlem Hospital has been continuously involved in the care of the mentally ill since at least 1400 - as such it has a strong claim to be the oldest foundation in Europe with an unbroken history of sheltering and treating the mentally disturbed. This text examines Bethlem's role within the caring institutions of London and Britain and its place in the history of psychiatry. Bethlem is not simply Europe's oldest psychiatric establishment; it is the most famous and the most notorious. It has assumed many guises over its 750 year history, it began as a religious foundation in the context of the Crusades. It became a hospital for the insane by accident, survived complex battles between Crown and Papacy, Parliament and the Corporation of the City of London, and gained great prominence for many years as Britain's only lunatic asylum. The name of Bethlem has actually turned into everyday speech and become part of a national culture. From Shakespeare's time, "Bedlam" was becoming detached from the institution and assuming a life and a persona.

Now covering the whole of Europe from the French Revolution to the present day, this major new edition has been completely revised and brought up-to-date. The approach embraces the whole continent from both national and regional perspectives, and combines political survey with grass roots 'people' history. Bringing this history vividly to life, the authors use a very broad range of sources including memoirs, archives, letters, songs and newspapers.

This is the second part of a projected four-volume history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
This volume covers the period from the beginning of 1927, when the BBC ceased to be a private company and became a public corporation, up to the outbreak of war in 1939. The acceptance of wireless as a part of the homely background of life and the acceptance of the BBC as the natural' institution for controlling it distinguish this period from that covered in the earlier volume. From 1927 to 1939 the system of public control which had evolved from the early struggles was never seriously in jeopardy and the one big official inquiry, the Ullswater Report, favoured no major constitutional changes. The main theme of the second volume, therefore, may be called the extension and the enrichment of the activity of broadcasting. Different chapters deal with the programmes and programme-makers; the listeners and the ways in which their needs were (or were not) met as the system expanded; public attitudes to the BBC and the increasing complexity of its control and organization; the coming of television and the early experiments of Baird and others; and the retirement of Sir John Reith - not only the end of a regime but the end of an era. The volume ends with preparations for war.

The ten years following the end of the Second World War were critical years in the history of British broadcasting. They witnessed the rise of television and the end of the BBC's monopoly. This fourth volume of Asa Briggs's detailed study is based on a mass of hitherto unexplored documentary evidence, much, but not all of it, from the BBC's own voluminous archives. It examines in detail how and why some of the key decisions affecting broadcasting policy - domestic and external - were reached and what were their effects.
Yet it is more than an institutional history. One long chapter deals with the changing arts and techniques of broadcasting news and views, politics, drama, features and variety, music, religion, education and sport. It describes a pattern of broadcasting - and a society and culture - already remote from our own. At every point the main contours of society and culture are explored. It ends with the first night of competitive television and with contemporary assessments of the likely impact of television on sound broadcasting and other media.
It is profusely illustrated and can be read either as complete in itself or as one fascinating phase in the unfolding history of British broadcasting.

Queen Victoria fell in love with the Riviera when she discovered it on her first visit to Menton in 1882 and her enchantment with this 'paradise of nature' endured for almost twenty years. Victoria's visits helped to transform the French Riviera by paving the way for other European royalty, the aristocracy and the very rich, who were to turn it into their pleasure garden. Michael Nelson paints a fascinating portrait of Victoria and her dealings with local people of all classes, statesmen and the constant stream of visiting crown heads. In the process, we see an unexpected side to Victoria: not the imperious, petulant, mourning widow but rather an exuberant girlish old lady thrilled by her surroundings. "Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera" is an absorbing and revealing account that makes an important contribution to both our understanding of Victoria's character and personality and our view of the late Victorian period.

Marx lived in London as a political exile from 1849 until his death in 1883. This book links the story of Marx's life in London to the places he lived and worked, and is aimed at visitors who are interested in seeing the places with which he was particularly associated. It is fully illustrated with photographs, maps and illustrations, and includes transport details to places of interest. Marx spent most of the first years in London in Soho, before moving to Kentish Town in 1856. Other places of significance to his life include the British Museum Reading Room, where he worked on Capital, Covent Garden, where the meetings of the First International took place, and Hampstead Heath, where Marx and his friends spent family Sundays.

The cities of this book are the cities of the railway and tramway age, of the age of steam and of gas, of a society sometimes restless, sometimes complacent, moving, often fumbling and faltering, towards greater democracy. The building of the cities was a characteristic Victorian Achievement, impressive in scale but limited in vision, creating new opportunities but also providing massive new problems.

This text looks at the people, ideas and events between the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Second Reform Act of 1867. From "John Arthur Roebuck and the Crimean War," and "Samuel Smiles and the Gospel of Work" to "Thomas Hughes and the Public Schools" and "Benjanmin Disraeli and the Leap in the Dark," Asa Briggs provides an assessment of Victorian achievements; and in doing so conjures up an enviable picture of the progress and independence of the last century.
"For expounding this theme, this interaction of event and personality, Mr. Briggs is abundantly and happily endowed. He is always readable, often amusing, never facetious. He is widely read and widely interested. He has a sound historic judgment, and an unfailing sense for what is significant in the historic sequence and what is merely topical. . . . Above all, he is in sympathy with the age of which he is writing."--"Times Literary Supplement"