Product Description

Based on the "Oxford Companion to British History", this dictionary is a compact reference work on all aspects of the history of Britain from 55 BC to the present day. In more than 3600 entries, over 100 specialist contributors describe the people and events that have shaped and defined domestic, political, social, and cultural life in Britain over the past two millennia. The entries cover a wide breadth of subject matter including: people - philosophers, writers, composers, politicians, actors, royalty; events - disasters, diseases; domestic history - legal issues and technical terms; newspapers and periodicals; sport and leisure; scholarship and education; and local history - counties, towns and cities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2265694 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

The Independent, September 22, 2001
the book is packed with interest to the final page

About the Author
Professor John Cannon held the chair of Modern History at Newcastle upon Tyne until 1992. For OUP he has edited many books including The Oxford Companion to British History (1997). The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians, which he edited in 1988, was awarded a Library Association prize for reference works.

Customer Reviews

Very good reference book
This book contains 708 pages of entries including a small chronology at the back. Each page is divided into two columns and the entries can vary in size from those occupying just a few lines to some that cover several pages.

To give a flavour of the book here are few [small] samples:

1 Aristocracy

A vague term derived from the Greek aristokatria, meaning the rules of the best. It is broader than peerage or even nobility. In common parlance it was usually taken to mean the upper classes or 'betters', but was confined largely to landowners. The 'golden age' of the artistocracy was between 1688 and 1832, with the monarch safely limited but with the threat of democracy still distant. Its legacy was the parks and country houses, such as Belton (1685), Petworth (1690), Chatsworth (1696), Castle Howard (1700), Woburn (1747), Harewood (1759) and Hevingham (1778).

2 Constable

One of the great medieval officers of state, derived from comes stabuli, count of the stables. The first lord high constable was a supporter of the Empress Matilda, who made him earl of Hereford. It then passed to the Bohuns, on to Thomas of Woodstock and to his descendant Edward, duke of Buckingham. executed by Henry VIII in 1521. It had acquired responsibility for the mobilization of the army, for the enforcement of martial law, and for adjudication on matters of chivarly. Scottish constables commanded the army and from the time of Robert I the office became hereditary in the Hay family, earls of Erroll.

3 Gordon riots, 1780

The greatest outburst of civil disorder in modern British history. They lasted for six days from 2 to 8 June and did enormous damage to London. They began with the presentation of Lord George Gordon of a petition to Parliament against recent concessions to the Catholics, but violent and criminal elements soon took over. Many members of the mob lost their lives, shot by the military, engulfed by flames, or buried in rubble. In all, 135 were put on trial, 59 capitally convicted, and 26 hanged, including a Jew, a negress, a one-armed man and 'a poor, drunken cobbler'.

4 Rotten boroughs

Was the term used before 1832 to describe Parliamentary constituencies where the voters had almost disappeared. A classic example was Old Sarum, which had been deserted since the inhabitants moved down the valley to Salisbury in 1220. But it was close run by other boroughs, such as Gatton in Surrey, which was down to 20 voters at the Restoration and only two 100 years later. Most of them finished up in Schedule A of the Great Reform Act.