Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: The British Are Coming! 9
Chapter 1: So Much History, So Little Time 11
Chapter 2: Sticks and Stone Age Stuff 23
Chapter 3: Woad Rage and Chariots: The Iron Age in Britain 35
Part II: Everyone Else Is Coming! The Invaders 49
Chapter 4: Ruled Britannia 51
Chapter 5: Saxon, Drugs, and Rock ’n’ Roll 65
Chapter 6: Have Axe, Will Travel: The Vikings 81
Chapter 7: 1066 and All That Followed 97
Part III: Who’s in Charge Around Here? The Middle Ages 113
Chapter 8: England Gets an Empire 115
Chapter 9: A Right Royal Time – the Medieval Realms of Britain 129
Chapter 10: Plague, Pox, Poll Tax, and Ploughing – and Then You Die 147
Part IV: Rights or Royals? The Tudors and Stuarts 161
Chapter 11: Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears the Crown 163
Chapter 12: A Burning Issue: The Reformation 181
Chapter 13: Crown or Commons? 199
Chapter 14: Old Problems, New Ideas 217
Part V: On the Up: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 231
Chapter 15: Let’s Make a Country 233
Chapter 16: Survival of the Richest: The Industrial Revolution 253
Chapter 17: Children of the Revolutions 267
Chapter 18: Putting On My Top Hat – The Victorians 285
Chapter 19: The Sun Never Sets – But It Don’t Shine Either 299
Part VI: Don’t Look Down: The Twentieth Century 315
Chapter 20: The Great War: The End of Innocence – and Everything Else? 317
Chapter 21: Radio Times 329
Chapter 22: TV Times 345
Chapter 23: Interesting Times 359
Part VII: The Part of Tens 377
Chapter 24: Ten Top Turning Points 379
Chapter 25: Ten Major Documents 383
Chapter 26: Ten Things the British Have Given the World (Whether the World Wanted Them or Not) 387
Chapter 27: Ten Great British Places to Visit 391
Chapter 28: Ten Britons Who Should Be Better Known 395
Index 401