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Britain: Before World War II

Queen Victoria’s Grandchildren
Biographies of eight of the queen’s grandchildren who, after her death, occupied European thrones, particularly George V of England, Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany.

Children and war
The history of child warriors is a long and bloody one that extends from the youths of Sparta in the 1st millennium BC to the young people engaged in military activity around the world in the early years of the 21st century.

• 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 Airships
  The story of the largest and most romantic aircraft ever conceived – from the flight of the first Zeppelin in 1900 to the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 and beyond – and its role in intercontinental air travel, exploration and warfare.
• Aldous Huxley: Prophetic writer
  In Brave New World, Huxley created a society where babies were engineered to a specific social status and happiness was controlled by drugs.
• Boy Soldiers
  Historian Richard van Emden tells how at least 250,000 of the soldiers who fought in World War I were 17 years old or less, too young to join up legally.
• Britain's Biological Weapons: The hidden history of Porton Down
  The story of Porton Down from its beginnings before the start of World War II to today.
• Britain's Trains and Railways: A beginner's guide
  Everything you wanted to know about steam engines, railway companies and electric locomotives.
• 1936 Cable Street Riots
  The day when East End Jews decided to confront Oswald Mosley’s Fascist blackshirts.
• Class Quiz
  The British are obsessed with class, from the aristocrats to chavs and the underclass, with the middle classes in between, constantly jockeying for position. Here is a quiz to set you thinking about class.
• Combatant states: UK
  Facts and figures from the First World War.
• Crime Team: The body in the trunk
  In May 1927, the police open a trunk at the left luggage office at Charing Cross and discover the dismembered body of a woman...
• Crime Team: The box office hit
  A vicious attack in London's East End in August 1934 leaves cinema owner Dudley Horde dead and his wife Maisie unconscious with head injuries...
• David Lloyd George
  British prime minister from 1916 to 1922 – the first to come from a humble background – Lloyd George was also a great reformer and a womaniser.
• David Lloyd George
  Britain’s only Welsh prime minister.
• The Diets that Time Forgot
  Info on weight-loss diets and fitness regimes popular in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras and 1920s, plus general facts on diet and nutrition.
• Edward VII
  Both his parents instilled in Edward a conviction that he was irredeemably frivolous and unworthy to be king. He devoted most of his life to living up to the first judgement, and the last nine years of it to disproving the second.
• Edwardian Country House
  Lots of fascinating information on and insights into the Edwardian age.
• Empire
  An extract from Professor Niall Ferguson's revisionist history of Britain and its colonies.
• Endurance: Shackleton and the Antarctic
  Background information on Shackleton and his expedition, and on his mentor Scott, plus details about Antarctica itself.
• The First World War
  An exploration and dissection of some of the war's most controversial features.
• 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.
• George V
  The king who created an image of the royal family as ordinary people.
• H G Wells: Visionary novelist
  Wells forecast 20th-century society so accurately that he has been dubbed 'the man who invented tomorrow'.
• Humphrey Jennings: The man who listened to
  Britain
  Director who became a leader of the British documentary film movement and made a series of classic morale-boosting films during World War II.
• 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.
• Immigration
  Accessible history of immigration into Britain from the time of the Romans to the present.
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
  While it caused a furore in wartime Britain, the 1943 film’s portrayal of a section of the European military caste was scrupulously accurate and it has grown in stature with each passing year.
• Lost Generation
  With an emphasis on the battle of the Somme, the information on this large site – including history articles and a unique database of the names of soldiers on World War I memorials in Britain – provides an opportunity to turn those lost during the war into real people.
• Mahatma Gandhi
  This Channel 4 Learning website examines Gandhi as a political campaigner and religious leader and the effects of his policies.
• Masters of Darkness: Aleister Crowley
  He spent his life proclaiming himself to be 'the beast 666', but was he just a spoilt rich boy rebelling against a repressive mother?
• MI5
  A concise account of the intelligence agency responsible for assessing threats to national security from its establishment in 1909.
• 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.
• Origination
  Brings together the wealth of web resources that record and celebrate the contributions of immigrant cultures to British history.
• Queen Victoria’s Grandchildren
  Biographies of eight of the queen’s grandchildren who, after her death, occupied European thrones, particularly George V of England, Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany.
• Race in the 20th Century
  This C4 Learning website explores the representations of empire and immigration in Britain and civil rights in the United States.
• The Real Crawfie
  The story of Marion Crawford, the royal governess who was ostracised by her former charges after publishing a book about her experiences.
• Rescued from Oblivion
  An extract from Steve Humphries' book on the deprivations on the British home front during World War I.
• Sir Douglas Haig
  Controversial British general who commanded the British forces during World War I.
• 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).
• Titanic: A beginner's guide
  A selection of the best websites and books on the British liner that sank on 14/15 April 1912.
• The Tower
  Historical nuggets from some of the curators of the Tower of London.
• Wallis Simpson: The demonised duchess
  A strong-willed woman, hungry for independence but caught up in a situation she could not control.
• Weapons of War
  This C4 Learning website charts the development of weapons technology from World War I to the present.
• What the Papers Said
  Newspapers give a contemporary slant to historical events: Chartists, Great Exhibition, Suffragette movement, World War I, Russian Revolution, Treaty of Versailles, General Strike, Cold War, Vietnam War (Channel 4 Learning).
• William Jason, Jim and Me: The real Amy Johnson
  A heroic pioneer of aviation, a celebrity who sought anonymity and a record-breaker who longed for a steady piloting job.
• Women in the 20th Century
  This C4 Learning website examines the roles of women during the last century in terms of war, work and the family.

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