History, British: Biographies

The Biography and Genealogy Master Index is designed to help you easily determine which publication to consult for biographical information. Indexed sources cover both living and deceased persons from every field of activity and from every country in the world. Typically current, readily available, standard reference works are indexed. Look for supplement volume updates to this valuable biographical research tool twice a year. These volumes are cumulated every five years.
More than 20 million citations compiled from more than 5,000 editions and volumes of approximately 1,700 current and retrospective biographical sources are included in the Biography and Genealogy Master Index base set and its supplements. In total, Biography and Genealogy Master Index provides coverage of more than 6 million contemporary and historical figures from authors to scientists, from boxers to fashion designers, from Adam and Eve to Frank Zappa.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a record of men and women who have shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century. The Dictionary offers concise, up-to-date biographies written by named, specialist authors. It is overseen by academic editors at Oxford University, UK, and published by Oxford University Press.
The Oxford DNB now includes biographies of more than 58,326 men and women who died in or before the year 2008—plus 502 ‘Theme’ articles for reference and research.

"A unique source of reference, the Dictionary of Labour Biography brings together in one volume biographical portraits of all the men and women who have made major contributions to the history of the Labour Party - from the founding fathers of the party to the current luminaries of New Labour." "Here are all party leaders from Keir Hardie to Tony Blair; every Labour Cabinet minister, past and present; thinkers from R. H. Tawney to Anthony Giddens; policy-makers from the Webbs to Ed Balls and David Miliband; organizers, trade union leaders, campaigners; and rebels and mavericks from Victor Grayson to Woodrow Wyatt and Derek Hatton."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Frederic Boase’s Modern English Biography (1892--1921) contains over 25,000 biographies of English men and women from the nineteenth century, making this six-volume dictionary an essential reference work for scholars in many disciplines. For a period of over twenty years Boase (1843--1916) made a collection of notes relating to English persons deceased since 1850. The work contains memoirs of a wide variety of figures including privy councillors, knights, judges, queen’s counsel, bishops, deans, archdeacons, generals and members of parliament. Other persons included are architects, inventors, publishers, actors, painters, engravers, physicians, eccentric characters and notorious criminals: ‘in fact any one who has been well known and about whom a question might arise in general conversations’ (from the Preface).
Each memoir contains the main details of each life, sources of portraits and, for authors, short titles of their main works. Boase’s information was carefully obtained and checked from various sources to give accurate details, such as birth and death dates. Froude said: ‘We want the biographies of common people’, and the Modern English Biography achieves this in its coverage of hundreds of lesser-known authors, artists, journalists, country gentlemen and many others. Divided alphabetically into six volumes, each volume contains an index of ‘the more remarkable, curious and interesting matter’, for example, Royal Society fellows, pseudonyms, inventions, and deaths under peculiar circumstances (by falling in a flying machine, from an explosion of steam, killed by a bear in a bear-pit in Berne).

The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is a monumental compilation of biographical entries for people important in the history of the British Isles. It was first published 1885-1901, in 66 volumes. This edition is an unaltered reprint of the 1921-1922 edition, which spans 22 volumes. It has been superseded by the e-version, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

This book provides a unique work of reference cutting across ancient cultural divisions within Dark Age Britain, and it enables the reader to follow the careers of people as far apart in time and place as the early Kentish kings and Viking earls of Orkney. Entries range from well-known characters such as Merlin, Alfred the Great, the historian Bede and the Danish warlord Cnut to the more obscure Pictish kings and abbots of Iona. Each entry is presented in a succinct and compact form in an easily accessible A to Z format. Here experts on a multitude of early historic peoples in Britain have brought together a dossier of scholarly findings on all those whose lives can be reconstructed from an examination of early source material, incorporating the very latest research. Englishmen from Wessex to Northumbria, Welshmen and Cornishmen, Northern Britons, Scots and Picts, Scandinavians from the Danelaw and York as well as from the Viking earldom of Orkney and the Southern Isles, all take their place in this wide-ranging survey of the people of Dark Age Britain. This detailed work of reference, supplemented by chronological and genealogical tables, will be an essential tool for all those with an interest in Dark Age Britain.

"The Women's Suffrage Movement is the first comprehensive reference work to bring together in one volume the wealth of information available on the individuals and organizations involved in the women's suffrage movement from the 1860s to the 1920s." "Drawing on national and local archival sources, the book contains more than 400 biographical entries, and over 800 entries on societies, covering both the constitutional and militant wings in England, Scotland and Wales." "Easily accessible and rigorously cross-referenced, this invaluable reference source covers not only the political developments of the campaign but provides a vital insight into its cultural context, listing novels, plays and films and defining the position of publishers and newspapers on the question of women's suffrage. The book also looks at the iconography and artefacts of the period, such as the postcards, jewellery and china engendered by the campaign." "The Woman's Suffrage Movement is an essential reference tool for students of history, gender studies, politics and sociology."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministersis a wide-ranging, comprehensive guide to the political lives of Britain's prime ministers from Sir Robert Walpole to Tony Blair. Written by some of the leading authorities on British politics this authoritative dictionary provides essential information about each premiership, including facts and analytical debate. Each entry has been written to the same formula and contains: * brief biographical information outlining career history and significant dates and events * a brief summary of the significance and peculiarities of a particular prime minister followed by a more descriptive and interpretative account of his or her political life and impact on British politics * references and further reading. The Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministersaddresses many of the key themes to understanding the role and impact of particular prime ministers such as: the political context; party management and reform; intra-party intellectual debate; and where relevant the evolution of the office of prime minister.

Written by leading historians Who's Who in British History presents history in the form of biography- but not in the standardWho's Who presentation. Each entry is instead an extensive essay (up to 5,000 words) that attempts to describe fully the life of each man or woman chosen for inclusion and explain how each one was influential in his or her time-and to define a continuing influence that warrants inclusion in a work of this kind. Each entry ends with the author's recommendations for further reading. Presenting figures from Geoffrey Chaucer to Queen Victoria, from Shakespeare to John Wesley, Sir Walter Ralegh to Dickens- in all some 1,700 figures from what one scholar has called "the greatest history of them all"-Who's Who In British History certainly confirms with this new edition its position as one of the definitive texts on its subject.