The monarch is the United Kingdom's head of state, exercising powers that are circumscribed by common law, convention, and statute law. Nowadays, many of the sovereign's functions are ceremonial but in the past the balance between ceremony and decision-making was very different. The foundations of the modern monarchy were laid more than a millennium ago, in Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Britain, so its modern form is a stage in an evolution that has been shaped by attitudes towards divorce, the changing role of women, the democratization of society, dynastic intermarriage, financial demands, religious convictions, struggles for economic and political power, and territorial aggrandizement. Covering some of the most famous figures in world history, including William the Conqueror, Henry VIII, and Queens Victoria, Elizabeth I, and Elizabeth II, the Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy provides a chronology starting with the year 495 and continuing to the present day, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and other aspects of British culture, society, economy, and politics. This book is a must for anyone interested in the British monarchy.

The foundations of the British monarchy date from the era, more than a millennium ago, when Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Viking peoples competed for dominance. Early sovereigns exercised near-absolute power but over time that authority dwindled as the changing role of women, the democratization of society, dynastic intermarriage, financial demands, religious convictions, struggles for economic and political control, and territorial aggrandizement combined to promote change. The strengths and weaknesses of rulers such as William the Conqueror, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Mary, Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth also contributed to the evolution of the monarchy and are documented here. Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 800 cross-referenced entries that cover significant events, places, institutions, and other aspects of British culture, economics, politics, and society. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the British monarchy.

The evolution of the United States from a late-18th century coalition of rebel British colonies to a 21st century global superpower was shaped by several forces. As the nation expanded its boundaries after the Treaty of Paris confirmed independence from Great Britain in 1783, it acquired a rich variety of resources - coal, fertile soils, forests, iron ore, oil, precious metals, space, and varied climates as well as extensive tracts of territory. Technological innovations, such as the cotton gin and steam power, enabled entrepreneurs to exploit those resources and create wealth. Federal and state legislators provided environments in which the economy could flourish, and military strategists kept the country safe from external attack. Diplomats negotiated commercial agreements with foreign governments and cultivated multinational alliances that strengthened freedoms. Through its focus on the people and places that shaped the country's economic and political development and its detailed accounts of the processes that enabled the U.S. to expand across the continent Historical Dictionary of the United States contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country's politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the United States.

The last quarter of a century, from 1979 to 2007, has been eventful for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The year 1979 brought major changes to the United Kingdom, in particular when the political climate altered radically with the coming to power of the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher following the disastrous "Winter of Discontent," which was characterized by economic woes and labor unrest. In 1997, the political climate shifted once again when the New Labour party won a landslide victory and the government was run by the left-leaning centrist, Tony Blair. The period witnessed conflicts raging both at home and abroad, it saw the premature death of a princess, and, more positively, the reemergence of the UK economy. The A to Z of Contemporary United Kingdom seeks to present the events, people, and trends of the last 28 years and to help explain the current state of the United Kingdom. Knowledge of this is vital to understanding the society, politics, personalities, and actions that are shaping the country right now. This is done through a chronology dating from 1979 to the present, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 700 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and organizations, as well as the political, economic, social, cultural, and religious facets.

For much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Britain was the dominant world power, its strength based in large part on its command of an Empire that, in the years immediately after World War I, encompassed almost one-quarter of the earth's land surface and one-fifth of its population. Writers boasted that the sun never set on British possessions, which provided raw materials that, processed in British factories, could be re-exported as manufactured products to expanding colonial markets. The commercial and political might was not based on any grand strategic plan of territorial acquisition, however. The Empire grew piecemeal, shaped by the diplomatic, economic, and military circumstances of the times, and its speedy dismemberment in the mid-twentieth century was, similarly, a reaction to the realities of geopolitics in post-World War II conditions. Today the Empire has gone but it has left a legacy that remains of great significance in the modern world. The Historical Dictionary of the British Empire covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Britain.