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Britain: Georgians

Georgian Underworld
Looks at the great social upheavals of the age and examines why they came about and what they led to.

The monarchs we never had
The death of the heir to the throne has had important consequences throughout British history – sometimes immediately, sometimes obvious only in retrospect.

• 1798 and After
  The social and political history of Ireland from the 1798 Rebellion to partition in 1921 (Channel 4 Learning).
• The Affair: The changing status of women
  A concise rundown of the changes in British law to do with marriage and divorce.
• The British Slave Trade: A chronology
  From the first British slave trader Sir John Hawkins to the Slavery Abolition Act and US Emancipation Proclamation.
• Bow Street Runner
  Dive into the murky underworld of Georgian London to solve mysterious crimes in the tough and unruly Covent Garden of the 1750s.
• Class quiz
  Class has always been important a vital ingredient in British society. Through this quiz, you will find out what many famous writers and others have had to say about class, and how it has affected the British and its history.
• Crime Team: Dead man at Drumbeg
  In April 1830, a body is found in a Scottish loch, wearing a tartan waistcoat identified as belonging to the Grant clan...
• Crime Team: Trouble at mill
  It is May 1807 and neighbours breaking into the cottage in Bramley on the outskirts of Leeds find 40-year-old Rebecca Perigo lying dead on the bed...
• Empire
  An extract from Professor Niall Ferguson's revisionist history of Britain and its colonies.
• The Empire Pays Back
  Should the companies and other institutions that profited from the slave trade apologise and pay reparations?
• Forbidden Fruit
  Taboo and titillation, racial pride and prejudice – these mark the story of love and sex between black and white people. This site looks at how people's curiosity of the exotic was poisoned by the violence and brutality of the plantations. The timeline includes key dates along the route to racial harmony.
• An Indian Affair
  The hidden origins of Britain's relationship with India from the 17th century to the religious zealotry and imperial ideology that was the Raj. This website places the interaction into the context of trade and politics and shows the myriad ways that India has suffused the English lifestyle.
• London: The greatest city
  Edited transcript of the Channel 4 documentary on the history of Britain's capital, together with many of the computer reconstructions that appeared in it.
• Matt's Old Masters: Hogarth
  The outstanding figure in artistic life in early Georgian England, the first British painter to achieve international fame.
• The monarchs we never had
  The death of the heir to the throne has had important consequences throughout British history – sometimes immediately, sometimes obvious only in retrospect.
• Monarchy
  Dynamic timeline that illuminates the lives of the men and women who sat on the English/British throne and the powerful individuals who supported and sometimes fought them.
• Nelson’s Navy
  While ‘rum, sodomy and the lash’ might be the stereotype of life at sea in in the 18th and early 19th century, it is far from the reality.
• Origination
  Brings together the wealth of web resources that record and celebrate the contributions of immigrant cultures to British history.
• The Prince Regent and His Circle: In their own words
  The history, the scandals and the gossip of the Prince Regent, his friends and his foes.
• The Real Captain Bligh
  William Bligh wasn't the sadistic martinet who provoked the mutiny on the Bounty. Rather he was a brilliant navigator, pioneer of ethnography and thorn in the side of the naval establishment.
• Regency House Party
  Background information on Regency life and culture.
• Regency House Party
  In this extract from her book, Lucy Jago tells how the Regency buck acquired his skills and attainments.
• The Royal Institution
  Brief history of the institution that was founded to foster public debate about science.
• The Scots Detective
  This website challenges historical accounts of the Scottish wars of independence, the Reformation, the Act of Union, Scottish exile and the Irish in Scotland (Channel 4 Learning).
• The Sinews of War
  The curator of the Bank of England Museum reflects on the Bank's role in funding Britain's wars.
• The Slave Trade and the Industrial Revolution
  How the slave trade helped Britain become the 'workshop of the world' while reinforcing a racist view of Africans.
• The Tower
  Historical nuggets from some of the curators of the Tower of London.
• War against Napoleon
  Facts and figures about the wars fought between Britain and France during 1793-1815, plus the main players and an outline of the war of ideas.
• Waterloo
  Military historian Gordon Corrigan reviews the 1970 film.
• The Worst Jobs in History: Georgian jobs
  Life for the personnel in Nelson's navy is particularly horrendous, and the Industrial Revolution produces new employment nightmares for the young, vulnerable and poor.

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