To help you follow the themes of the programmes, our team of experts have suggested a range of books and websites you might find good starting points:

Current series

Books related to the podcasts:

Nationalism: History and Theory by Paul Lawence, published by Longman, 2005

The Search for Normality: National Identity and Historical Consciousness in Germany since 1800, by Stefan Berger, published by Berghahn Books, 2003

Science, Technology and the British Industrial 'Decline' 1870-1970, by David Edgerton, published by Cambridge University Press, 1996

Warfare State: Britain, 1920-1970, by David Edgerton, published by Cambridge University Press, 2005

Series Three

Suffragettes

The British Women's Suffrage Campaign, by Harold Smith, published by Longman, 2007

Darien

The Price of Scotland: Darien, Union and the Wealth of Nations, by Douglas Watt, published by Luath Press, 2007

The Bengal Famine

Poverty and Famines: an essay on entitlement and deprivation, by Amartya Sen, published by Oxford University Press, 1983

The Battle of Trafalgar

The Spanish American Revolutions 1808 - 1826 by John Lynch published by Norton, 1986

Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy by Joun Harbron, published by Conwary Maritime, 1988

Series Two

Jack the Ripper

Books

Jack the Ripper: the facts by Paul Begg, published by Robson Books, 2004

One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century by Donald Sassoon, published by Fontana, 1997

Rothschild Buildings: Life in an East-End Tenement Block by Jerry White 1887-1920, published by Pimlico, 2003
An evocation of the experience of living in the East End

Website

Bloody Sunday 1887 - An account of the riot in Trafalgar Square

The Somme

Books

Forgotten Victory: The First World War - Myths and Realities by Gary Sheffield, published by Headline, 2002

The Great War: myth and memory by Dan Todman, published by Hambledon, 2006

Website

Centre for First World War Studies - University of Birmingham research centre with book reviews and other related information.

The 1945 Labour Government

Books

The National Health Service: A Political History by Charles Webster by Oxford University Press, 2002

Warfare State: Britain, 1920 - 1970 by David Edgerton, published by Cambridge University Press, 2005

Websites

People's War on Open2 - How did World war shape the world we live in today?

Peoples' War – The BBC's online archive of wartime memories.

History of the NHS - A history of the National Health Service

Magna Carta

Books

Constitutional History of the UK by Ann Lyon, published by Routledge Cavendish, 2003

"Magna Carta": Manuscripts and Myths by Claire Breay, published by British Library, 2002

Website

Forest Law charters - Text of the charters that set out rights to use royal land.

Series One

Battle of Britain

Books

The Battle: Summer 1940 by Richard Overy, published by Penguin, 2000
A guide to the air battle popularly believed to be the turning point of the Second World War

Websites
People's War on Open2 - How did World war shape the world we live in today?

Peoples' War – The BBC's online archive of wartime memories

Space race

Moon: the Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin, published by Penguin, 1995 The Americans reach for the stars

The French Revolution

The Oxford History of the French Revolution by William Doyle, published by Oxford University Press, 1989
A comprehensive record of the events that lead to the First Republic

The Armada

The Spanish Armada: The Experience of War in 1588 by Felippe Fernandez-Armesto published by Oxford University Press, 1988
The clash between naval powers

General books

Customs in Common: Studies In Traditional Popular Culture by EP Thompson, published by I B Tauris, 1993)
A collection that includes Thompson's article on the history of wife sales

East End by William Fisherman, published by Five Leaves, 2005

Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai by Robert Bickers published by Penguin, 2004
An evocation of the twentieth-century British Empire through the life of a Shanghai policeman

Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought by David Hackett Fischer, published by Harper ,1970
How historians can get it wrong.

History of the Peloponnesian Wars by Thucydides, published by Hackett Publishing, 1998
Classic accounts of Ancient Greece

In Defence of History by Richard Evans, published by Granta, 2001

Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney by John Birmingham published by Vintage, 2000
An urban history written by an Australian journalist, in which the city is the hero (or the villain)

London Stories by Hilda Kean , publisehd by Rivers Oram Press, 2004 One historian's search for her own family's history.

Seeing History: Public History in Britain Now by Hilda Kean, Paul Martin, and Sally Morgan, published by Francis Boutle, 2000
A collection of essays on the current state of museums and other public representations of history

Theatres of Memory Vol. 1: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture, by Raphael Samuel, published by Verso, 1996 and Theatres of Memory Vol. 2:Island Stories: Unravelling Britain, publshed by Verso, 1999
The ground-breaking survey of the way that we see the past

The Heritage Industry by Robert Hewison, published by Methuen, 1987
Contrasting with Samuel's celebration of it, this view of theme-park Britain takes a dim view of theme parks and history-by-diorama

The Histories by Herodotus, published by Penguin, 2003

The Industrial Revolution: Reading History by Pat Hudson, published by Hodder Arnold, 1992

The Invention of Clouds: How An Amateur Meteorologist Forged The Language Of The Skies by Richard Hamblyn, published by Picador, 2002
An example of the widespread modern genre of historical writing which uses the story of one person's life to illuminate an issue

The Invention of Tradition, by Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger, (eds) published by Cambridge, 1992
A selection of essays on the way that historical myths are created and deployed.

The Life of George Stephenson by Samuel Smiles, reprinted by University Press of the Pacific, 2001
One of Smiles' highly influential works of hero-worship, designed to inspire as much as to inform.

Using History by Jeremy Black, published by Oxford, 2005
How and why academic history is being produced around the world today.

1066 and all that: a memorable history of England by Sellars and Yeatman, published by Methuen 1998
The satirical take on the old-fashioned 'Kings and Princes ' history that used to be taught in UK schools.

General Weblinks

CADW [Wales] - CADW is the Welsh Assembly Government’s historical environmental division. Its aim is to promote the conservation and appreciation of Wales’s historic monuments.

English Heritage - Looks after historical properties in England.

Environment and Heritage Service (Northern Ireland) – Organisations charged with the responsibility for preserving the significant parts of the built environments.

Historic Scotland - Looks after historical properties in Scotland.

Institute for Historial Research 'Reviews in history' – Historians reviewing each others' books, and responding to the reviews.

The Oral History Society - A national and international organisation dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral history, which encourages people of all ages to tape, video or write down their own and other people's life stories.

Who Do You Think You Are? TV presenters, comedians and others demonstrate the techniques and risks of uncovering your family history.

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