Blair, Roman Britain and Early England: 55 B.C. - A.D. 871 (1966)

Peter Hunter Blair.
Roman Britain and Early England: 55 B.C. - A.D. 871.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1966.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

Book Series: The Norton Library History of England

Originally published: Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1963.

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Author Information:

• Peter Hunter Blair (1912–1982), Wikipedia.
• Peter Hunter Blair. An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, Third Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956; 1977; 2003.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Peter Hunter Blair. The World of Bede. London: Secker & Warburg, 1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Wikipedia Articles, In Our Time, Books, etc.:

• Prehistoric Britain, to A.D. 43.
• British Iron Age, 800 B.C. – A.D. 100.
• Roman Britain, First Century to early Fifth Century.
• Sub-Roman Britain (Post-Roman Britain), late Fourth Century to early Sixth Century.
• History of Anglo-Saxon England, Fifth Century to Eleventh Century.
• England in the Middle Ages, Fifth Century to Fifteenth Century.

Roman Britain Topics:

• Celts.
• Iron Age tribes in Britain.
• Melvyn Bragg, Barry Cunliffe, Alistair Moffat, Miranda Aldhouse Green, "The Celts," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 21 Feb 2002.
• Picts.
• Caledonians.
• Scotland during the Roman Empire.
• Scotland in the Early Middle Ages.
• Melvyn Bragg, Katherine Forsyth, Alex Woolf, Gordon Noble, "The Picts," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 09 Nov 2017. (Includes a reading list.)
• Roman conquest of Britain.
• Melvyn Bragg, Greg Woolf, Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards, "Roman Britain," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 1 May 2003.
• Romano-British culture.
• Roman roads in Britannia.
• Roman sites in Great Britain.
Roman locations more frequently mentioned by Blair:
• Camulodunum, Colonia Claudia Victricensis, first capital of the province Britannia, later known as Colchester.
• Londinium, later known as London.
• Lindum Colonia, later known as Lincoln.
• Eboracum, later known as York.
• Viroconium Cornoviorum, later the site of Wroxeter.
• Calleva Atrebatum, later the site of Silchester.
• Verulamium, later the site of St Albans.
• Isca Augusta, later the site of Caerleon.
• Deva Victrix, later the site of Chester.
• Corinium Dobunnorum, later the site of Cirencester.
• Venta Silurum, later the site of Caerwent.
• Boudica's uprising, 60–61.
• Melvyn Bragg, Juliette Wood, Richard Hingley, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, "Boudica," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 11 Mar 2010.
• Scotland during the Roman Empire.
• Hadrian's Wall, begun in A.D. 122.
• Melvyn Bragg, Greg Woolf, David Breeze, Lindsay Allason-Jones, "Hadrian's Wall," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 12 Jul 2012.
• Antonine Wall, begun in A.D. 142.
• Crisis of the Third Century.
• Gallic Empire, 260–274.
• Reforms of Diocletian.
• Great Conspiracy, 367–368, attacks on Roman Britain by Picts, Scotti, Attacotti, Saxons and Franks.
• Migration Period, Fourth Century to Sixth Century.
• Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
• Melvyn Bragg, Charlotte Roueché, David Womersley, Richard Alston, "The Roman Empire's Collapse in the 5th century," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 18 Mar 2004.
• End of Roman rule in Britain, late Fourth Century to mid-Fifth Century.
• Groans of the Britons, between 446 and 454.

Transition Period:

• Sub-Roman Britain (Post-Roman Britain), late Fourth Century to early Sixth Century.
• Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, mid-Fifth to early Seventh Centuries.
• Germanus of Auxerre (c.378–c.448), visited Britain around 429.
• Ambrosius Aurelianus (5th Century).
• Vortigern (5th Century).
• Extreme weather events of 535–536.
• Plague of Justinian, 541–542.
• Late Antique Little Ice Age, Sixth and Seventh Centuries.

Anglo-Saxon England Topics:

• History of Anglo-Saxon England, Fifth Century to Eleventh Century.
• Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, mid-Fifth to early Seventh Centuries.
• Heptarchy, seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England:
  • Kingdom of East Anglia.
  • Mercia.
  • Kingdom of Northumbria.
  • Wessex.
  • Kingdom of Essex.
  • Kingdom of Kent.
  • Kingdom of Sussex.
• Anglo-Saxon London.
• Anglo-Saxon paganism.
• Celtic Christianity.
• Lindisfarne.
• Gildas (c.500–c.570). De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), Sixth Century.
• Columba (521–597).
• Pope Gregory I (c.540–604), Saint Gregory the Great, Pope 590–604.
• Gregorian mission, 596, a Christian mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert Britain's Anglo-Saxons.
• Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604), first Archbishop of Canterbury 597–604.
• Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, Seventh Century.
• Aidan of Lindisfarne (d. 651).
• Edwin of Northumbria (c.586–632/633), King of Deira and Bernicia 616–632/633; baptised in 627.
• Hilda of Whitby (c.614–680), abbess.
• Melvyn Bragg, John Blair, Rosemary Cramp, Sarah Foot, "St Hilda," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 5 Apr 2007.
• Wilfrid (c.633–709/710).
• Cuthbert (c.634–687).
• Lindisfarne Gospels, produced around the years 715–720.
• Melvyn Bragg, Michelle Brown, Richard Gameson, Clare Lees, "The Lindisfarne Gospels," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 20 Feb 2003.
• Bede (672/3–735). Ecclesiastical History of the English People, c.731.
  • Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• The Age of Bede. Edited by David Hugh Farmer and J.F. Webb. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1998.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Melvyn Bragg, Richard Gameson, Sarah Foot, Michelle Brown, "The Venerable Bede," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 25 Nov 2004.
• Alfred the Great (847/849–899), reign began 871.

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I thought Blair's Roman Britain and Early England was a good introduction to the period. However, the book is over 50 years old and much archeological work has been done and several notable treasure hoards found since then, so it is probably a little out-of-date on the archeological front. Also, historical interpretations may have changed or been refined, for example on topics related to Romanization (the lack thereof) and Christianity.

For a beginner like me, a great advance of the past 50 years is the publication recently of books with color illustrations (Blair's text does have excellent black-and-white maps and plates):

• Barry Cunliffe. Britain Begins. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Peter Salway. The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Guy de la Bédoyère. Roman Britain: A New History, Second Edition. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• James Campbell, Eric John, Patrick Wormald. The Anglo-Saxons. London: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1982. London: Penguin Books, 1991.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  (Heavily illustrated, only a few in color.)
• Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan. The Anglo-Saxon World. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

For recent texts on this period see the books in The Penguin History of Britain series (An Imperial Possession; Britain After Rome) and the Short Oxford History of the British Isles series.

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