This unique account of the British Isles from pre-Roman times to the 20th century is distinguished by its emphasis on the fact that English history forms only part of a wider "history of four nations". Wide-ranging, the book transforms and challenges traditional accounts of what constitutes national history.

Introduction; 1. The Celtic societies of the British Isles; 2. The impact of Rome on the British Isles; 3. The post-Roman centuries; 4. The Vikings and the fall of the Old Order; 5. The Norman ascendancy; 6. The decline of the Norman-French empire; 7. The making of an English empire; 8. The remaking of an empire; 9. The Britannic melting pot; 10. The rise of ethnic politics; 11. Between the wars; 12. Withdrawal from empire; 13. Post-Imperial Britain: post-Nationalist Ireland; Afterword; Selected reading list.