Between the end of the Seven Years war in 1763, and the abolition of slavery within its Empire in 1833, Britain's maritime engagement with the wider world was transformed. The period was characterized by the contradictory and competing forces of revolution and reaction, 'liberty' and imperialism, war and peace, enlightenment and enslavement. The essays in this collection offer the path-breaking research of leading scholars to explore the significance and complexities of Britain's maritime world in this key period through a series of thematic discussions, comparing similar and contrasting movements and events. They were originally delivered as lectures in a series jointly sponsored by the Institute of Historical Research and by the Centre for Imperial and Maritime Studies at the National Maritime Museum.

This book brings together David Cannadine's most important reflections on how history has been written and made in Britain in the twentieth century. Empire, monarchy, parliament, the economy, culture, heritage and tradition: Cannadine casts his eye over some of the central topics of our age and their treatment by historians down the years, delivering rich insights into the nature and profession of history itself. Most of the essays included here were produced during his decade-long association with the Institute of Historical Research in London and they are framed by his inaugural and valedictory lectures there. The result is a remarkably coherent collection, which demonstrates yet again why Cannadine is one of the most thoughtful, original, incisive and readable historians of our time.

E.H. Carr's What is History?, published in 1961, was a runaway bestseller and the most influential book to examine writing and thinking about history this century. To commemorate the book's forthieth anniversary, David Cannadine has gathered an all-star cast of contributors to ask and seek answers to E.H. Carr's classic question for a new generation of historians: what does it mean to study history at the start of the twenty-first century? The contributors pose this question anew for the most important and lively subfields of history writing today. For example, Alice Kessler-Harris ponders "what is gender history now?" while Paul Cartledge asks "what is social history now?" This volume stands along E.H. Carr's classic, paying tribute to his seminal inquiry while moving the debate into new territory, ensuring its freshness and relevance for a new century of historical study.

History is everywhere in the media. Television viewers can spend every evening watching a different historian expound upon Empire, Witchcraft, the Civil War or Royal Mistresses or go to the cinema and watch reconstructions of the Second World War, American Civil War or Imperial China. Even current affairs reporting on television, radio or in newspapers implicitly or explicitly includes historical explanations. This book examines the boom in history in television and film, newspapers and radio and the constraints and opportunities it offers. Leading historians and high profile broadcasters, such as Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, Tristram Hunt, Ian Kershaw and David Puttnam, drawn on their personal experiences to explore the problems and highlights of representing history in the media.

Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was a colourful and complex character, whose supremely successful naval career quickly attained legendary status. By 1803 he was Britain's paramount hero and already maimed with the loss of an arm and blind in one eye. He returned to war when called back in May and spent a further two years at sea before dying at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Today, two centuries after his death, the 'immortal memory' of Nelson endures. In this book, leading historians provide a radical reappraisal of his life and times.

The fruit of a two-year research project, this book aims to provide the first historical account of the teaching of history in 20th-century England, and a series of reflections and suggestions which will inform, feed into and influence the current debate over teaching in schools, a debate which seems likely to go on for years.

Following the events and activity surrounding the bicentenary of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson, this volume acts both as a summary of what we have learned and a collection of some of the best scholarship on the battle itself and its context and legacy. It moves away from the figure of Nelson and brings new research from a range of disciplinary perspectives to bear on one of the most significant naval actions in the age of sail.

Collects twelve previously unpublished essays by one of Britain's most eminent historians, David Cannadine, including his inaugural and valedictory lectures at the Institute of Historical Research. A unique volume discussing the study and nature of History itself and a range of key topics and periods in British and Imperial History.

'History makes plain the complexity and contingency of human affairs and the range and variety of human experience; it enjoins suspicion of simplistic analysis, simplistic explanation, and simplistic prescription; it teaches proportion, perspective, reflectiveness, breadth of view, tolerance of differing opinions, and thus a greater sense of self-knowledge.'--David Cannadine
This book brings together David Cannadine's most important reflections on how history has been written and made in Britain in the twentieth century. Empire, monarchy, parliament, the economy, culture, heritage and tradition: Cannadine casts his eye over some of the central topics of our age and their treatment by historians down the years, delivering rich insights into the nature and profession of history itself. Most of the essays included here were produced during his decade-long association with the Institute of Historical Research in London and they are framed by his inaugural and valedictory lectures there. The result is a remarkably coherent collection, which demonstrates yet again why Cannadine is one of the most thoughtful, original, incisive and readable historians of our time.

History is everywhere in the media. Television viewers can spend every evening watching a different historian expound upon Empire, Witchcraft, the Civil War or Royal Mistresses; or go to the cinema and watch reconstructions of the Second World War, American Civil War or Imperial China. Even current affairs reporting on television, radio or in newspapers implicitly or explicitly includes historical explanations. This book examines the boom in history, in television and film, newspapers and radio and the constraints and opportunities it offers. Leading historians and high profile broadcasters, such as Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, Tristram Hunt, Ian Kershaw and David Puttnam, draw on their personal experiences to explore the problems and highlights of representing history in the media.

The fruit of a two-year research project, this book aims to provide the first historical account of the teaching of history in twentieth-century England, and a series of reflections and suggestions which will inform, feed into and influence the current debate over teaching in schools, a debate which seems likely to go on for several years.

E.H. Carr's "What is History?," first published in 1961, was the most influential book to examine writing and thinking about history this century. To commemorate the book's forthieth anniversary, David Cannadine has gathered an all-star cast of contributors to ask and seek answers to E.H. Carr's classic question for a new generation of historians: what does it mean to study history at the start of the twenty-first century? The contributors pose this question anew for the most important and lively subfields of history writing today. For example, Alice Kessler-Harris ponders "what is gender history now?" while Paul Cartledge asks "what is social history now?" This volume stands alongside E.H. Carr's classic, paying tribute to his seminal inquiry while moving the debate into new territory, ensuring its freshness and relevance for a new century of historical study.

Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was a colourful and complex character, whose supremely successful naval career quickly attained legendary status. By 1803 he was Britain's paramount hero and already maimed with the loss of an arm and blind in one eye. He returned to war when called back in May and spent a further two years at sea before dying at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Today, two centuries after his death, the 'immortal memory' of Nelson endures. In this book, leading historians provide a radical reappraisal of his life and times.