A History of the British Isles is a balanced and integrated political, social, cultural and religious history of the British Isles in all its complexity, exploring the constantly evolving dialogue and relationship between the past and the present.

A wide range of topics and questions are addressed for each period and territory discussed, including England's Wars of the Roses of the 15th century and their influence on court politics during the 16th century; Ireland's Rebellion of 1798, the Potato Famine of the 1840s and the Easter Rising of 1916; the two World Wars and the Great Depression; British cultural and social change during the 1960s; and the history and future of the British Isles in the present day.

Kenneth Campbell integrates the histories of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales by exploring common themes and drawing on comparative examples, while also demonstrating how those histories are different, making this a genuinely integrated text. Campbell's approach allows readers to appreciate the history of the British Isles not just for its own sake, but for the purposes of understanding our current political divisions, our world and ourselves.

Introduction: Approaches to the History of the British Isles
1. Peoples and Places: The Beginnings of Regional Identities from Prehistoric Times to the Early Middle Ages
2. Conquest, Colonization, and Culture: The High Middle Ages from ca. 1000 to 1348
3. Plague, Politics, and Power: The Later Middle Ages from the Black Death to the Beginnings of the Reformation
4. Religion, Warfare, and Dynastic Politics: The Tudors and the Stewarts in the Sixteenth Century
5. From Stewart to Stuart: The Monarchy and the Three Kingdoms, 1603 to 1642
6. Interregnum and Restoration: From Cromwell to the Battle of the Boyne
7.The Revolution Settlement, the 1707 Act of Union, and the Jacobites: From the Treaty of Limerick to the Battle of Culloden
8. Reform and Rebellion: Political Culture in the Britain and Ireland in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century
9. War with France and Its Aftermath: 1801-1832
10. The Victorian Period: Politics, Society, and Culture in the Nineteenth Century
11. Britain's Moment as a World Power: The British Empire in the Nineteenth Century
12. In the Shadow of the Great War, ca. 1890-1918
13. Peace and War, 1919-1945
14. The Post-War Period, 1945 to 1960: Social Change and the End of Empire
15. Change, Instability, and Adjustment: ca. 1960-1979
16. Demands, Disappointments, Hopes, and Promises: ca. 1979-2004
Conclusion: History and the Future of the British Isles in the Twenty-First Century
Bibliography
Index