A History of Britain - The Fate of Empire

Here he illuminates the period from 1776 to 2000 through a variety of historical themes, including Victorian advances in technology and industry, women's increasing role in society, and the burgeoning British Empire which promised civilisation and material betterment for all. This volume also looks at key characters from the period, including Wordsworth, Burke, Queen Victoria, Churchill, and Orwell, whilst examining some lesser-known lives, such as Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman doctor, and Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse in the Crimea. Finally, Schama reflects on the overwhelming presence of the past in the 20th century, and the struggle of our leaders to find a way of making a different national future.

4 Episodes

Forces of Nature (1780 - 1832)

Season 3 - Episode 1

Britain never had the kind of revolution France experienced in 1789, but came close to it. This programme explains how 'the romantic generat...

Victoria and Her Sisters (1830 - 1910)

Season 3 - Episode 2

Queen Victoria came to the throne at the tender age of eighteen, to rule over a country in the throes of a painful but supercharged industri...

The Empire of Good Intentions (1830 - 1925)

Season 3 - Episode 3

The British Empire promised peace, stability and prosperity but in Ireland and India it coincided with violence and famine. The programme e...

The Two Winstons (1910 - present)

Season 3 - Episode 4

Schama's last programme is a meditation on the place of the past in Britain's 20th-century history. Personified in the sharply different re...