Part I: History and Identity
- Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (ed.), Perspectives on the Britishness Question.London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
- This book grew out of debates about Britishness during the 2000s and presents a range of different, lively analyses of the question.
- David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History, London: Picador, 2021.
- The book tells the forgotten history of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean with a particular focus on the slave-trading British Empire and how the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on slavery in the Americas.
- Hannah Rose Woods, Rule, Nostalgia. A Backwards History of Britain. London: Penguin Books, 2022.
- This book explores Britain’s fascination with its own history and focuses especially on the role of myth, nostalgia and a longing for the “good old times” in politics and public debate.
- Linda Colley, Acts of Union and Disunion: What has held the UK together – and what is dividing it? London: Profile Books, 2014.
- Based on a 15-part radio series about the state of Britishness and the union, the analyses in this book are presented in short and elegantly written chapters.
- Stuart Ward, Untied Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
- This book traces the ways in which Britishness has been imagined, experienced, disputed and ultimately discarded across the globe as the British Empire dissolved and Britain’s power declined after the Second World War.
Part II: Politics
- David Childs, Britain since 1945: A Political History, seventh edition, London: Routledge, 2012.
- This political history of Britain provides a chronological overview key developments in domestic politics and foreign policy from 1945-2010.
- Bill Jones and Philip Norton, Politics UK, tenth edition, London: Routledge, 2022.
- This political science textbook serves as the ultimate guide to British politics. It combines comprehensive, up-to-date analysis with historical insight. A detailed table of contents and a fine index makes the book useful as a reference work for specific questions/topics.
- Robert C. Thomsen and Sara Dybris McQuiad (eds), Britain Today: Uncertain Pathways to the Future, Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag, 2017.
- A fine introduction to modern Britain aimed at first- and second-year university students in Denmark. Apart from an overview of the British political landscape, it includes excellent chapters on Northern Ireland and the British relationship with the European Union.
Part III: Economy and Welfare
- Guy Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class − Special Covid-19 Edition, London: I. P. Tauris, 2021.
- This book introduces the precariat − the growing number of Britons facing lives of insecurity on zero-hour contracts. The precariat is Britain’s new underclass, who, it is argued, is often ignored by economists and politicians.
- Pat Thane (ed.), Unequal Britain - Equalities in Britain since 1945, London: Continuum, 2010.
- This book explores different aspects of inequality in the UK, including chapters on issues such as racial and gender inequality.
- Pat Thane, Divided Kingdom: A History of Britain, 1900 to the Present, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- This book provides a clear and comprehensive survey of the history of Britain since 1900, exploring political, economic, social and cultural changes. Key themes include the rise and fall of the welfare state as well as economic successes and failures. Thus, it helps the reader to understand how contemporary British society, including its divisions and inequalities, was formed.
Part IV: Immigration and Integration
- Amelia Gentleman, The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment, London: Guardian Faber Publishing, 2020.
- The Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman tells the full story of the Windrush scandal where thousands of British citizens were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants – with life-shattering consequences.
- Colin Yeo, Welcome to Britain: Fixing Our Broken Immigration System, London: Biteback Publishing, 2022.
- In this book, campaigner and immigration lawyer Colin Yeo exposes the injustice of an immigration system that is unforgiving, unfeeling and, he argues, ultimately failing.
- Kenan Malik, From Fatwa to Jihad: How the World Changed − From the Satanic Verses to Charlie Hebdo, London: Atlantic Books, 2017.
- This book shows how the 1989 burning of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses by a thousand-strong mob of Muslim protesters transformed the debate on multiculturalism, tolerance and free speech in the UK − and the world.
- Maya Goodfellow, Hostile Environment: How Immigrants became Scapegoats, London: Verso, 2019.
- This excellent book tracks the history of Britain’s immigration system from the 1960s to the present, showing the human costs of anti-immigration politics and arguing for an alternative.
- Robert Winder, Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, Abacus, 2013.
- This well-written book tells the story of the remarkable migrations that have founded and defined Britain, thus showing that the story of the way Britain has been settled and influenced by foreign people is as old as the land itself.
Part V: Media and Culture
- David P. Christopher, British Culture: An Introduction, third edition, London Routledge, 2015.
- A fine introduction to British culture that places contemporary developments in historical perspective.
- John Oakland, British Civilization: An Introduction, eighth edition, London: Routledge, 2016.
- This nicely illustrated book is widely used as an introduction to British studies. It includes useful chapters on British politics and the British legal system.
Part VI: Foreign Policy
- Alasdair Blair, Britain and the World since 1945, London: Routledge, 2015.
- This succinct textbook brings a chronological approach to the study of Britain’s relations with the world. It is an excellent source for students interested in the development of British foreign policy since 1945.
- David Reynolds, Britannia Overruled - British Foreign Policy and World Power in the 20th Century, Second edition, Harlow: Pearson Education, 2000.
- This book provides an excellent overview of British foreign policy in the twentieth century with a particular focus on the decades of decline after the Second World War.
- David Sanders and David Patrick Houghton, Losing an Empire, Finding a Role - British Foreign Policy since 1945, Second edition, London: Palgrave, 2017.
- Taking its point of departure in Winston Churchill’s idea about Britain at the centre of three overlapping circles, this textbook gives a comprehensive introduction to the evolution of British foreign policy in the period after the Second World War.
- Mark Garnett, Simon Mabon and Robert Smith, British Foreign Policy Since 1945, London: Routledge, 2017.
- This textbook brings a chronological approach to the study of British foreign policy since the Second World War to make the principal events and dynamics accessible within a broader historical and cultural context.
