History Department- Reading lists for AS and A2
These lists include some suggestions of resources to use to support your study of A-level History.
These should be used in ISPs, as well as in support of homework and research tasks. Most of the books are available in the school library. This is by no means an exhaustive list, try to explore those available and find additional resources.
AS Unit 1: Expansion and challenge of nationalism (Unification of Italy and Germany from second
Reich to third Reich)
Core texts
Martin Clark, The Italian Risorgimento (1998)
John Hite and Chris Hinton, Weimar and Nazi Germany ( 2003)
Geoff Layton, From Second Reich to Third Reich 1918-1945, (2009)
John Lowe, The Concert of Europe: International Relations 1814-70 (1990)
Derrick Murphy et al. (eds.), Europe 1760-1811 (2004)
Robert Pearce and Andrea Stiles, The Unification of Italy, 1815-70 (2010)
AS Unit 2: Britain c.1860-1930. The changing position of women and the suffrage question.
Core texts
Paula Bartley, Votes for Women (2007)
Paula Bartley, The Changing Role of Women, 1815-1914 (2004)
Martin Pugh, Women’s Suffrage in Britain, 1867-1928 (1986)
Rosemary Rees (ed.), Edexcel GCE History: Britain C. 1860-1930: The Changing Position of Women and the Suffrage Question
Elizabeth Roberts, Women’s Work 1840-1940 (1994)
Harold Smith, The British Women’s Suffrage Campaign 1866-1928 (1998)
Further factual books
Gail Braybon, Women Workers in the First World War (1981)
Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth (Autobiographical) (Originally 1933)
Julia Bush, Women against the Vote (2007)
M Bryant, The Unexpected Revolution (1979)
Barbara Caine, English Feminism 1780-1980 (1997)
Barbara Caine, English Feminists (1992)
Carol Dyhouse, Girls growing up in late Victorian and early Edwardian England (1981)
Carol Dyhouse, No Distinction of Sex? Women in British Universities 1870-1939 (1995)
Judith Flanders, The Victorian House
Mark Girourard, The Victorian Country House
Brian Harrison, S eparate Spheres: the opposition to women’s suffrage in Britain (1978)
Lee Holcombe “Victorian wives and property”, in M. Vicinus ed. A Widening Sphere (1980)
Patricia Hollis, Ladies elect: Women in English local government 1865-1914 (1987)
Sandra Holton, Feminism and Democracy: women’s suffrage and reform politics1900-1918 (1986)
Allen Horstman, Victorian Divorce (1992)
F Hunt (ed.), Lessons for Life: The Schooling of Girls and Women 1850-1950 (1987)
Cheryl Law, Suffrage and Power: the Women’s movement in Britain, 1914-1959 (1992)
Jane Lewis (ed.) Labour and Love: Women’s experience of Home and Family 1850-1940
Alison Light, Mrs Woolf and the Servants: The Hidden Heart of Domestic Service

Joyce Marlow (ed.), The Virago Book of Women and the Great War (1998)
Paul McHugh, Prostitution and Victorian Social Reform, (1980)
Virginia Nicholson, Singled Out: How two million women survived without men after the First World
War (2007)
Laura Nym Mayhall, The Militant Suffrage Movement: Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860-
1930 (2003)
Emmeline Pankhurst, My Own Story (1914) (Autobiographical)
Jeremy Paxman, The Victorians: Britain through the Paintings of the Age.
Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England (1989)
Martin Pugh, The March of the Women: A revisionist analysis of the Campaign for Women’s Suffrage,
1866-1914 (2000)
Martin Pugh, Women and the Women’s movement in Britain, 1914-1959 (1992)
Jane Purvis, Emmeline Pankhurst (2002)
Jane Purvis, A History of Women’s Education in England (1991)
Jane Purvis and Sandra Holton (eds.), Votes for women (2000)
Jane Robinson, Bluestockings
Andrew Rosen, “Rise up Women!” The Militant Campaign of the Women’s Social and Political Union,
1903-1914 (1974)
David Rubinstein, Before the Suffragettes: women’s emancipation in the 1890s (1986)
S. VanWingerden, The Women’s suffrage movement in Britain, 1866-1928 (1999)
Fictional reading
Tracey Chevalier , Falling Angels
Anthony Quinn, Half of the Human Race
Wartime Poems
Madeline Ida Bedford, Munition Wages
Vera Brittain, The Superfluous Woman
Jessie Pope, War Girls
Siegfried Sassoon, The Glory of Women
A2 Unit 3: France 1786-1830: Revolution, Empire and Restoration
Core texts
Derrick Murphy et al. (eds.), Europe 1760-1811 (2004)
Keith Randall, France 1814-1870 Monarchy, Republic and Empire (1996)
Dylan Rees, France in Revolution (2011)
Andrea Stiles, Napoleon, France and Europe (1998)
Sally Waller, France in Revolution 1776-1830 ( 2002)
D. G. Wright, Revolution and Terror in France 1789-1795 (1983)
Further factual books
Alfred Cobban, A History of Modern France Volume 1: 1715-1799 (1982
Alfred Cobban, A History of Modern France Volume 2: 1799-1945 (1962)
William Doyle, The Old European Order 1660-1800 (1992)
Duncan MacIntyre, Napoleon. The Legend and the Reality (1976)
Denis Richards, An Illustrated History of Modern Europe 1989-1974 (1983)
George Rude, Revolutionary Europe 1783-1815 (1975)

Anthony Wood, Europe 1815-1945 (1965)
A2 Unit 4: Challenging Authority: Protest and Reform 1789-1889
Core texts
Richard Brown, Chartism (2001)
Harry Browne, Chartism (2004)
Eric Evans, Chartism (2000)
Derek Fraser, The Evolution of the British Welfare State (1984)
R. D. Lobban, The Trade Unions- A short history (1969)
Trevor May, An Economic and Social History of Britain 1760-1970 (1992)
Edward Royle, Chartism (1980)
Neil Tonge, Industrialisation and Society 1700-1914 ( 1993)
Further factual books
Clive Behagg, Labour and Reform: Working Class movements 1815-1914 (1991)
J. Harrison, Early Victorian Britain 1832-51 (1979)
Christopher Hill, British Social and Economic History 1700-1964 (1971)
E. Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire (1981)
Trevor May, The Economy 1815-1914 (1978)
Peter Murray, Poverty and Welfare, 1830-1914 (2004)
Henry Pelling, A History of British trade unionism (1973)
Rosemary Rees, Poverty and Public Health 1815-1948 (2001)
L.C.B. Seaman, Victorian England, (1980)