Embark on a captivating journey through British history, where the lives of ordinary people intersect with major events. "Britain Evolution: From Conquest to Modernity" explores how the British people adapted and transformed, from the Roman era to the digital age. Discover the intricate interplay of identity, power, class, religion, and technology, and their profound impact on society. Unravel the complex story of Britain, from the Roman conquest to the digital revolution. Explore the formation of British identity, the ever-changing dynamics of gender and power, the pursuit of success in the face of inequality, the fluctuating tides of faith, and the enduring marks left by war. Witness the engines of progress driven by technological innovation, the complexities of immigration and belonging, the legacy of the British Empire, the fight for democracy, and the evolving role of the monarchy. Gain a deep appreciation for the forces that have shaped Britain into the nation it is today. Walk alongside Roman soldiers and Anglo-Saxon warriors. Witness the clash at the Battle of Hastings and the unwavering resilience of the Blitz. Share in the struggles of the Suffragettes and the Windrush generation. Marvel at the groundbreaking inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Reflect on the complexities of a post-Brexit, multicultural Britain. "Britain Evolution" bridges the gap between past and present, painting a vivid picture of a nation's remarkable journey. Unlike other British history books, this one places the lives of ordinary people at the forefront. It uncovers the hidden connections between their everyday experiences and the grand sweep of history. Discover how the winds of change impacted individuals and communities, shaping the vibrant and multifaceted Britain we know today.

This book charts the history of how biological evolution has been depicted on British television and radio, from the first radio broadcast on evolution in 1925 through to the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species in 2009. Going beyond science documentaries, the chapters deal with a broad range of broadcasting content to explore evolutionary themes in radio dramas, educational content, and science fiction shows like Doctor Who. The book makes the case that the dominant use in science broadcasting of the ‘evolutionary epic’, a narrative based on a progressive vision of scientific endeavour, is part of the wider development of a standardised way of speaking about science in society during the 20th century. In covering the diverse range of approaches to depicting evolution used in British productions, the book demonstrates how their success had a global influence on the genres and formats of science broadcasting used today.

Half a century of UK gerontology research, theory, policy and practice are under the spotlight in this landmark critical review of the subject that places the country’s achievements in an international context. Drawing on the archives of the British Society of Gerontology and interviews with dozens of the most influential figures in the field, it provides a comprehensive picture of key developments and issues and looks to the future to plot new directions in thinking. This is the story of the remarkable progress of gerontology, told through the eyes of those who have led it.

This volume provides the readers with a broad but detailed consideration of a wide array of transmutationist thinkers who published before Darwin. Highlighting some of those whom Darwin later acknowledged as well as number he chose not to, readers are shown that the notion that none of these earlier thinkers offered a well-developed or workable theory of evolution is untenable once we read their own words. Further, we will quickly see that transmutation, or the ‘developmental hypothesis’ as it was also sometimes called, had a wide audience across the period under consideration. Scholars such as Adrian Desmond have already drawn attention to the political radicals in the London and Edinburgh medical schools who embraced the transmutationist ideas of the French anatomists Etienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire and the naturalist and zoologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and the historians John van Wyhe and Roger Cooter have highlighted the materialist naturalism of phrenologists whose work was so amenable to developmentalist thinking. Paul Elliott has drawn our attention to the “Derbyshire Darwinians,” who championed the transmutationist and egalitarian Enlightenment ideas of Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather — as well as the extent to which the Derby Philosophical Society was a breeding ground for this kind of thinking. It was here, for instance, that the young radical journalist Herbert Spencer spent many hours in his formative years. Thus, while Darwin was quietly working away at his big species book, transmutation was being discussed and debated, written about, and advocated across the nation. The book he eventually published in 1859, On the Origin of Species, was thus a contribution to an already very lively, controversial, contested, and ongoing debate. However, Darwin had not intended to published Origin as we know it; it is in fact only what he called a brief abstract of the detailed multi-volume work he had initially had in mind. It was upon receipt of a short essay from the naturalist and collector Alfred Russel Wallace that Darwin was pressed to publish. In this short paper Wallace had quite independently arrived at a theory of species development that was remarkably similar to that which Darwin had been working on for some twenty years.

This lavishly illustrated book documents a remarkable collection of cutlery and provides a complete survey of the design and evolution of British cutlery from Neolithic times to the present day.

The importance of the fourteenth century for the development of English law has long been recognised. The shocks and challenges of that period - the murder of the incompetent Edward II, Edward III's ever escalating military demands for the war in France and the unparalleled disaster of the Black Death - gave English society a trauma that found its ultimate expression in Lollardy and the Peasants' Revolt. Out of this ferment came the evolution of a system of justice still substantially recognisable today. This key theme for students of late medieval England has often been made needlessly difficult by the rarefied nature of most books available on the subject. The aim of this book is to present in lucid and approachable terms the main outline of the debate and the different schools of thought, and to suggest the best ways by which students can understand a crucial subject and how this helps illuminate many other aspects of English society during the reigns of Edward II, Edward III and Richard II.

By the end of the nineteenth century, reform and development of the British electoral system had inaugurated a new style of mass politics which fundamentally transformed the face of the British party system. This book traces the evolution of recognisably modern parties from their roots in the 1880s through half a century of dramatic change in organisational structure, electoral competition and constitutional thought. In the House of Commons the Labour Party replaced the Liberals as the radical answer to the Conservative Party. In the country at large the complex web of Victorian social, regional and religious allegiances gave way to a cruder but more dynamic model of modern political loyalties. The transformation at Westminster and in the constituencies is surveyed in relation to changes to the franchise (including the vote for women), class consciousness, political organisation and doctrine. The comprehensive account explains the varying fortunes of the parties in the face of mass democracy, collectivism, the First World War and economic uncertainty. It also provides a critical insight into the debates and conflicts of interpretation which surround this pivotal period in British political history.

Written over several decades and collected together for the first time, these richly detailed contextual studies by a leading historian of science examine the diverse ways in which cultural values and political and professional considerations impinged upon the construction, acceptance and applications of nineteenth century evolutionary theory. They include a number of interrelated analyses of the highly politicised roles of embryos and monsters in pre- and post- Darwinian evolutionary theorizing, including Darwin’s; several studies of the intersection of Darwinian science and its practitioners with issues of gender, race and sexuality, featuring a pioneering contextual analysis of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection; and explorations of responses to Darwinian science by notable Victorian women intellectuals, including the crusading anti-feminist and ardent Darwinian, Eliza Lynn Linton, the feminist and leading anti-vivisectionist Frances Power Cobbe, and Annie Besant, the bible-bashing, birth-control advocate who confronted Darwin’s opposition to contraception at the notorious Knowlton Trial.

Gabriela A. Frei examines how sea powers used international law as an instrument in foreign policy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, illuminating key developments of international maritime law surrounding state practice, custom, and codification, and outlining the complex relationship between international law and maritime strategy.