British History

When he died in 1820, King George III had presided over the longest reign by a monarch in England’s history and ruled the British Empire during one of its most turbulent and important periods, but he was remembered by the unappealing sobriquets "The Mad King” and ”The King Who Lost America".

The British Royal Family is held in awe across Britain, and they have captured the interest of people around the globe. Queen Elizabeth II is respected for her stately demeanor, Prince William and his new wife, Kate Middleton, are deemed trendsetters and attract attention from media starved for gossip, and nobody has held as unique a place in pop culture as the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

For someone whose career ended over 30 years ago, Audrey Hepburn continues to retain her popularity and exert a strong influence over how people view beauty and sophistication.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' British Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of Great Britain's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Perhaps no actor has been able to retain their popularity into old age as well as Sean Connery. Despite retiring in 2006, Connery remains a venerable figure who continues to receive accolades for his handsome virility and status within the Hollywood elite. onsidering his personal acclaim as an actor, it is perhaps surprising that despite his status, most of the films in which Connery has appeared are not particularly acclaimed. Even the James Bond franchise initially received a largely lukewarm critical reception.

Only a select few actors become international stars in their time, but none had as unique a career as Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was the first true film star, and he managed to do so even when films were still silent. He has been honored with too many awards to count, and the fact that his name remains instantly recognizable nearly a century after his first film is a testament to his influence.

Was he "the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street"? Or a man whose "brilliant but unsound judgement resulted in detrimental consequences for Britain and for the world"? Nearly 50 years after his death, debate still rages over Sir Winston Churchill's contribution to history. Indeed, now that wartime nostalgia has mostly washed away, in Britain in particular the views on Churchill are more divergent than ever.

Durante años, el tema de la Compañía Británica de las Indias Orientales ha fascinado a historiadores, así como a economistas, antropólogos, sociólogos y otros tipos de estudiosos. Algunos consideran que la Compañía es un ejemplo perfecto de un imperio que drena los recursos de las personas desfavorecidas y destruye sus culturas enteras en un abrir y cerrar de ojos.

Listeners will be taken on a marvelous journey of discovery as author and engineman Clive Groome delves into the past and present of Britain's rich railway heritage. Each of the regions are described, from the conception of their rail network to the locomotives that ran on them, followed by a look at the region's preserved. Interspersed throughout are special profiles on some of the most notable locomotives ever built with in-depth discussion on their design and performance.

Survey documents three leading artists—Lubaina Himid, Yinka Shonibare CBE and Hew Locke—exploring their work and ideas in development, in reviews, and recorded conversations, drawn from the Cv/Visual Arts Research Archive.

To us she appears inconsistent - religious yet aggressive, calculating yet emotional, with the light touch of the courtier, yet the strong grip of the politician - but is this what she was, or merely what we strain to see through the opacity of the evidence? As for her inner life, short of a miraculous cache of new material, we shall never really know. Yet what does come to us across the centuries, is the impression of a person who is strangely appealing to the early 21st century: A woman in her own right - taken on her own terms in a man's world.

In 1676, Sir Isaac Newton famously wrote in a letter to philosopher Robert Hooke, "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants." By the time he died, Newton had become science's greatest giant, and every scientist who has followed him has stood on his shoulders. Newton is widely considered the most influential scientist in history, best known for the discovery of gravity and the subsequent laws of motion that he theorized.

Of all the great actors of the 20th century, none personifies acting royalty more than Laurence Olivier. Some of this is simply due to the fact that he was actually knighted in 1947, along with a lengthy list of other honors. Of course in addition to the literal sense of the term, there is undeniably a manner in which Olivier qualifies as acting royalty. It is not for nothing that Spencer Tracy once referred to Olivier as "the greatest actor in the English-speaking world".

The English Baroque jewel in Oxfordshire, known to the locals as the fabled Blenheim Palace, is without question one of the finest buildings in the country. This majestic manor, the only non-royal estate in England to be categorized as a palace, is far more than just an attractive landmark. In fact, it is a place with enough history to fill an endless number of books. Blenheim Palace examines the estate's architectural history, the toxic friendship that nearly upended the entire project, and the historic events that transpired within the palace's walls.

Meet the Luddites, a 19th-century brotherhood of rebels who vowed to annihilate every last one of the newfangled spinning machines that cost thousands their jobs. The Luddites' riots are indefensible, at least from the standpoint of violence, but they beg the question of whether the protests were nonsensical acts of rage carried out by thugs who sought to exploit imagined fears or desperate measures taken by those who felt neglected by the government. The Luddites chronicles the revolution and the negative reaction to it.

In 1605, Guy Fawkes was one of over a dozen conspirators in the famous Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to assassinate England's King James I. When the plot was discovered on the 5th of November, Fawkes and other conspirators were quickly convicted and executed, and the King asked his subjects to remember the 5th November as "the joyful day of deliverance".

The life of Sir Francis Drake, or, more precisely, the tale of it, is one of those prime examples that history is written by the winners. Drake was the most famous sailor of the Elizabethan era, and he has long been considered a hero by the English. His successes against the Spanish as a captain and a privateer were legendary, and Drake was celebrated for fighting the Queen's enemies, sinking their ships, and capturing the treasure that would otherwise be used to finance attacks on England.

La Compañía Británica de las Indias Orientales fue uno de los factores clave en la formación del Imperio Británico. Desde sus orígenes como compañía comercial luchando por mantenerse a la altura de sus superiores competidores holandeses, portugueses y españoles, a su ejercicio como la autoridad gobernante del subcontinente indio a su espectacular caída final, la Compañía de las Indias Orientales sirve como un lente a través del cual se puede explorar las fuerzas económicas y sociales que moldearon la formación del Imperio Británico global.

Who would have thought that tea would change American history? Learn about the events leading to the Boston Tea Party by listening to this book. Understand the significance of the said event and how the British Parliament retaliated. What other actions did the colonists do to show their defiance of the government that ruled them from across the Atlantic Ocean? What an interesting precursor to the American Revolution this book is.

Agatha Christie, born in upper-middle-class British society during the late Victorian era, turned into one of the most prolific and popular mystery writers of all time. Her novels have been translated into 44 languages and have sold over two billion copies worldwide. Her mysteries continue to sell as new generations of readers discover the delights of her main characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. In addition, Christie’s plays have been a tremendous success, with The Mousetrap running in London for the past 70 years.