Britain

The Great Pagoda at Kew

Tim Knox looks at how the explosion of interest in all things Chinese in 18th-century Britain found a centrepiece in the royal gardens of George III.

The Entrepreneurial State, 1700-1914

Did the British state help the UK's transformation into a position of world industrial dominance? Were 'gentlemen capitalists' or no-nonsense industrialists fawned on or frustrated by government and its agents? Martin Daunton addresses a controversial historical debate.

A Sympathetic Ear: Napoleon, Elba and the British

Was Napoleon's escape from his first exile unwittingly aided by his erstwhile opponents from Albion? Katharine MacDonogh weighs up the enigmatic response that certain British citizens showed towards their imperial prisoner.