Simon Schama explores the forces that tore Britain apart during two centuries of dynamic change - transforming outlooks, allegiances and boundaries.

From the beginning of July 1637, battles raged on for 200 years - both at home and abroad, on sea and on land, up and down the length of burgeoning Britain, across Europe, America and India. Most would be wars of faith - waged on wide-ranging grounds of political or religious conviction. But as wars of religious passions gave way to campaigns for profit, the British people did come together in the imperial enterprise of 'Britannia Incorporated'.

The British Warsis a story of revolution and reaction, inspiration and disenchantment, of progress and catastrophe, and Schama's evocative narrative brings it vividly to life.

Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University. His award-winning books, translated into fifteen languages, includeCitizens,Landscape and Memory, Rembrandt's Eyes,A History of Britain,The Power of Art,Rough Crossings,The American Future, The Face of BritainandThe Story of the Jews: Finding the Words (1000 BCE - 1492).

His art columns for theNew Yorkerwon the National Magazine Award for criticism and his journalism has appeared regularly in theGuardianand theFinancial Timeswhere he is Contributing Editor. He has written and presented forty films for BBC2 on subjects as diverse as Tolstoy, American politics and John Donne.