San Antonio College Library

"Between 1550 and 1750 London became the greatest city in Europe and one of the most vibrant economic and cultural centres in the world. This book is a history of London during this crucial period in its rise to world-wide prominence, during which it dominated the economic, political, social and cultural life of the British Isles. London incorporates the best recent work in urban history, contemporary accounts from Londoners and tourists, and fictional...

"From one of the most beloved and distinguished historians of the British monarchy, here is a lively, intimately detailed biography of a long-overlooked king who reimagined the Crown in the aftermath of World War I and whose marriage to the regal Queen Mary was an epic partnership"-- King George V reigned over the British Empire from 1910 to 1936. As a young man George seemed uninspired, but his reign was immensely consequential. He faced a constitutional...

"The legend of King Arthur has been told and retold for centuries. As the king who united a nation, his is the story of England itself. But what if Arthur wasn't English at all? As writer and activist Adam Ardrey discovered, the reason historians have had little success identifying the historical Arthur may be incredibly simple: He wasn't an Englishman at all. He was from Scotland. Finding Arthur chronicles Ardrey's unlikely quest to uncover the secret...

"We have long understood the Industrial Revolution as a triumphant story of innovation and technology. Empire of Guns, a rich and ambitious new book by award-winning historian Priya Satia, upends this conventional wisdom by placing war and Britain's prosperous gun trade at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the state's imperial expansion. Satia brings to life this bustling industrial society with the story of a scandal: Samuel Galton of Birmingham,...

The acclaimed literary biographer looks at the early life of influential writer and public figure H.G. Wells, from his school days and his emergence as writer of extraordinary depth to the publication of The Time Machine.

"This important new study examines the market trade of medieval England from a new perspective, by providing a wide-ranging critique of the moral and legal imperatives that underpinned retail trade. James Davis shows how market-goers were influenced not only by practical and economic considerations of price, quality, supply and demand, but also by the moral and cultural environment within which such deals were conducted. This book draws on a broad...

"We can begin with a kiss, though this will not turn out to be a love story, at least not a love story of anything like the usual kind." So begins A Very Queer Family Indeed, which introduces us to the extraordinary Benson family. Edward White Benson became Archbishop of Canterbury at the height of Queen Victoria's reign, while his wife, Mary, was renowned for her wit and charm -- the prime minister once wondered whether she was "the cleverest woman...

" ... in twenty meals, The taste of Empire tells the story of how the British created a global food trade that moved people and plants across continents ... Taking us on a wide-ranging culinary journey from the American frontier to the Far East, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to present day celebrations of Thanksgiving, Lizzie Collingham uncovers the decisive role of the British Empire in shaping our modern diet."--Jacket.

"The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might. David Edgerton's bold, compelling new history shows the conflict in a new light, with Britain as a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests, and in command of a global production system. Rather than belittled by a Nazi behemoth, Britain arguably had the world's most advanced mechanized forces. It had...