The study of the history of the British Isles is currently experiencing a golden age. The collapse of modernism and the overshadowing of both the Marxist tradition and the "Whig Interpretation" that sees all history as progress, combined with the nationalist movements in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, have created unprecedented intellectual activity. However, the world has not stood still: the collapse of communism, the issue of EU membership, and the advancement of multiculturalism have led more people in the English-speaking world to feel that their collective landscape now appears dramatically different from that inhabited by their ancestors just a few decades ago.

In A World By Itself, six distinguished historians offer the most definitive and moving history of the British Isles to date. They trace the political, religious, and material cultures from the Romans to the present, serving both as an urgent re-evaluation of our shared past and an inspiring celebration of British history. It focuses on the main themes and most dramatic moments of the past two millennia: the rise and fall of empires, reformation, revolution and restoration, wars, both political and global, and the perennial question of what it means to be British.

Pages: 768, Dimensions: 15.3x15.3cm