A History of the British Isles

Jeremy Black’s vigorous and fascinating study tells the story of a group of islands and their remarkable impact on the rest of the world. From the earliest pre-history right up to the present day, this stirring account describes the astonishingly varied stages through which the British Isles have passed to achieve their current identity.
Unlike most other texts, A History of the British Isles is not just a history of England. Proper weight is given to all four, often fractious, components of the British Isles – England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales – providing the reader with an admirably balanced and absorbing narrative of an extraordinary shared history. Throughout revised and up-to-date, this timely third edition now contains fresh insights and incorporates more material on social and cultural history.

"Jeremy Black’s concise history of the British Isles is extremely comprehensive and eminently readable. It possesses a helpful focus on political developments, economic history, and technological change but also pays considerable attention to social and cultural issues." Paul Deslandes, University of Vermont

Published August 2012 by Palgrave (ISBN 978-1-4039-3812-1)

War and the Cultural Turn

In this stimulating new text, renowned military historian Jeremy Black unpacks the concept of culture as a descriptive and analytical approach to the history of warfare. Black takes the reader through the limits and prospects of culture as a tool for analyzing war, while also demonstrating the necessity of maintaining the context of alternative analytical matrices, such as technology.
Black sets out his unique approach to culture and warfare without making his paradigm into a straightjacket. He goes on to demonstrate the flexibility of his argument through a series of case studies which include the contexts of rationale (Gloire), strategy (early modern Britaisn), organizations (the modern West), and ideologies (the Cold War). These case studies drive home the point at the core of the book: culture is not a bumper sticker; it is a survival mechanism. Culture is not immutable; it is adaptable.
Wide-ranging, international and always provocative, War and the Cultural Turn will be required reading for all students of military history and security studies.

Further information from Polity>>

Acclaim for War and the Cultural Turn:

‘This work fills an intellectual niche: it is the only one establishing culture as a flexible, malleable concept. Key themes, above all the flexible nature of culture and the limits and prospects of its use as a tool for analysing war, are clearly demonstrated. The book’s thesis is effectively contextualized with alternative analytical matrices, such as technology. Jeremy Black is one of the few scholars of war who commands the sources and goes beyond them.’ ( Dennis Showalter, Colorado College)

‘“Culture” is a fluid term, now often used indiscriminately to explain complex military situations. In this book Jeremy Black examines its various manifestations in modern times and cuts through current simplifications to apply a sharp analysis to problems. This book is profoundly important for historians of warfare, but above all for its practitioners.’ (John France, Swansea University)

‘Jeremy Black is a sceptic. His suspicion of the broad application of models, of single-cause explanations, and of intellectual certitude figures prominently in War and the Cultural Turn. Although he has long argued – against a backdrop of technological determinism in military history – for the centrality of culture in the study of societies and military organizations in wartime, he points out the contingency of cultural analysis and the limits of cultural discourse as a model for the study of military history. An original, sharp and enlightening study of military history as cultural history, War and the Cultural Turn will find fans and adherents among military and non-military historians.’ ( Guy Chet, University of North Texas)

Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519-1871

Jeremy Black traces the competition for control of North America from the landing of Spanish troops under Hernan Cortes in modern Mexico in 1519 to 1871 when, with the Treaty of Washington and the withdrawal of most British garrisons, Britain accepted American mastery in North America. In this wide-ranging narrative, Black makes clear that the process by which America gained supremacy was far from inevitable. The story Black tells is one of conflict, diplomacy, geopolitics, and politics. The eventual result was the creation of a United States of America that stretched from Atlantic to Pacific and dominated North America. The gradual withdrawal of France and Spain, the British accommodation to the expanding U.S. reality, the impact of the American Civil War, and the subjugation of Native peoples, are all carefully drawn out. Black emphasizes contingency not Manifest Destiny, and re-conceptualizes American exceptionalism to take note of the pressures and impact of international competition.

Slavery

A new global history of slavery from ancient origins through the horrors of the Atlantic trade to the present day.
A thought-provoking and important book that raises essential issues crucial not only for our past but also the present day.

In this panoramic history, Jeremy Black tells how slavery was first developed in the ancient world, and reaches all the way to present day and the contemporary crimes of trafficking and bonded labour. He shows how slavery has taken many forms throughout history and across the world – from the uprising of Spartacus, the plantations of the Indies, and the murderous forced labour of the gulags and concentration camps.

Slavery helped consolidated transoceanic empires and helped mould new world societies such as America and Brazil. In the Atlantic trade, Black also looks at the controversial area of how complicit the African peoples were in the trade. He then charts the long fight for abolition in the 19th century, including both the campaigners as well as the lost voices of the slaves themselves who spoke of their misery.

Finally, as Black points out, slavery has not been completely abolished today and coerced labour can be found closer to home than is comfortable.

Out August 2011
Paperback 978-1-84901-689-6
Visit publisher’s website

Debating Foreign Policy in Eighteenth-Century Britain

It was during the course of the eighteenth century that Britain's status as a major maritime and commercial power was forged, shaping the political, economic and military policies of the nation for the next two centuries. Starting from a relatively minor role in global affairs before 1700, Britain rapidly rose to become a significant player in European affairs, and leading imperial power by 1800. In this commanding contribution to the subject, Jeremy Black draws on his extensive expertise to examine how British political culture and public debate in this period responded to, and in part shaped, this transition to an increasingly prominent role in world affairs.

>>Further information and ordering

Crisis of Empire

A new account of the changing relationship between Britain and America in the eighteenth century that helped to define both nations. From Continuum

War in the World 1450-1600

War was a central theme in the world history of the late fifteenth and sixteenth century, with military capability and activity central to its states, societies, economies and cultures. War in the World 1450-1600 provides an account of warfare in the period, placing it in a global context. It offers a corrective to a narrative that has emphasised European developments and obscured the history of non-European military systems and cultures of war. Published by Palgrave

Acclaim for War in the World:

'An impressive display of comparative history, coherent and well written, and convincingly argued. It is very likely to be considered a milestone development in the time to come'. (John Thornton, Professor History, Boston Univeristy)

Eighteenth-Century Britain, 1688-1783

Jeremy Black sets the politics of eighteenth century Britain into the fascinating context of social, economic, cultural, religious and scientific developments. The second edition of this successful text by a leading authority in the field has now been updated and expanded to incorporate the latest research and scholarship. Download order form.

Studying History

The third edition of this best-selling book has been thoroughly revised to reflect the changing nature of the discipline. With advice on writing essays and dissertations and preparing for exams, the skills section has also been expanded to include group work and oral presentations, and deals with using the Internet for assignments.

Naval Power

Man lives on land, but the seas of the world are crucial to his lot. Focusing on navies as instruments of power and analysing what they indicate about the nature of state systems and cultures all over the world, Black provides an overview of the most significant debates within the field. Organised into key historical periods and accessibly framed, this wide-ranging account emphasises the links between past and present throughout the history of naval power. Download order form.

Beyond the Military Revolution

The seventeenth century has long been seen as a period of 'crisis' or transition from the pre-modern to the modern world. This book offers a chance to explore this crisis from the perspective of war and military institutions in a way that will appeal to those doing global history. Download order form.

A History of Diplomacy

'[a] spirited defence of traditional diplomacy . . . a history of the profession, but with an alternative focus, looking at modern diplomacy's non-Western traditions and its roots in the medieval West. It provides fascinating details along the way about the development of embassies, envoys, and give-and-take or 19th century statesmanship. It almost made me want to rejoin the trade – except in a time capsule.' – Eamon Delaney, Irish Times

‘Jeremy Black brings together a wide ranging body of knowledge to produce a powerful defence of the traditional academic discipline of Diplomatic History. In so doing he also demonstrates the continuing importance and relevance of diplomacy in the changing conditions of the modern world.’ – Professor John Clark, University of Buckingham

In A History of Diplomacy, historian Jeremy Black challenges the conventional account of the development of diplomacy, devoting more attention to non-Western traditions and to the medieval West than is usually the case. By the nineteenth century a system of diplomacy was increasingly formalized. Black charts the course and evolution of ‘diplomacy’ in all its incarnations, concluding with the ideological diplomatic conflicts of the twentieth century and the situation today. The role of modern inter- and non-governmental organizations – from the United Nations and NATO to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – in diplomatic relations is assessed, and the challenges facing diplomacy in the future are identified and investigated.

A History of Diplomacy presents a detailed and engaging study into the ever-changing phenomenon of diplomacy: its aims, its achievements, its successes and failures, against a historical and cultural background. An essential read for students and scholars of history and politics, it will also be of interest to anyone intrigued by the forces that have shaped international relations throughout history.

The Battle of Waterloo: a new history

Waterloo was an iconic battle for the British: a triumph of endurance that laid the path for the modernity of the nineteenth-century, in which Britain played a key role.

This new history offers a masterly and concise reinterpretation of one of the seminal events in modern times, by one of the world’s foremost military historians.

The battle on Sunday 18th June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium is one of the most argued-over battles in history. Lord Wellington immortally dubbed it ‘the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.’ The battle became an iconic memory in the British consciousness, a triumph of endurance that paved the way for the 19th century. It was also a defining moment for the French, bringing to the end both the reign of Napoleon I and the second Hundred Years' War between Britain and France. The battle was also important for a host of other participants, from Prussia, the state that was to be the basis of modern Germany, to the Netherlands and Belgium, whose fate it decided until the Belgian revolution of 1830, and to minor German principalities such as Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau, each of which also sent troops to the Duke of Wellington's army.

The Battle of Waterloo offers readers a fascinating examination of where this battle belongs in the larger story of the tectonic power shifts in Europe, and the story of military modernization. Jeremy Black uses Waterloo to explore the changing nature of war, the rise and fall of Napoleon’s empire, and the influence of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars on the 19th century.

The Battle of Waterloo by Jeremy Black is published on 6 May 2010 by Icon Books £14.99 hardback ISBN 9781848311558 >>More