Asa Briggs (1921–2016)
Author of A Social History of England
About the Author
Asa Briggs was born in Keighley, England on May 7, 1921. He received a BA in history and a BSc in economics from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1941. During World War II, he worked at Bletchley Park, the Buckinghamshire country house devoted to cracking German wartime codes. He taught at show more several universities including the London School of Economics; Worcester College, Oxford; Leeds University; the University of Sussex; and Open University. He wrote several non-fiction works including The Age of Improvement, Victorian People, Victorian Cities, Victorian Things, and a five-volume history of British broadcasting. His last two books were the autobiographies entitled Secret Days and Special Relationships. He died on March 15, 2016 at the age of 94. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Asa Briggs
Victorian Trilogy : 3 Volume Set in Slip Case. Victorian Cities; Victorian People; Victorian Things. (1996) 42 copies
A Victorian Portrait: Victorian Life and Values As Seen Through the Work of Studio Photographers (1989) 36 copies
The history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom. Vol.2, The golden age of wireless (1965) 17 copies
Marks & Spencer 1884 - 1984: A centenary history of Marks & Spencer Ld, the originators of penny bazaars (1984) 16 copies
They Saw it Happen: 1897-1940: An anthology of eye-witness accounts of British history (1960) 14 copies
Essays in the History of Publishing in Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the House of Longman, 1724-1974, (1974) 11 copies
The history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom.. Vol.1, The birth of broadcasting (1961) 11 copies
Cand, Unde, Cum s-a intamplat, cele mai dramatice evenimente, si cum au schimbat lumea... (1997) 8 copies
The Collected Essays of Asa Briggs: Volume II: Images, Problems, Standpoints, Forecasts (1985) 4 copies
Social thought and social action; a study of the work of Seebohm Rowntree, 1871-1954 (1974) 3 copies
Historians and the study of cities 2 copies
History of Birmingham 2 copies
The Hamlyn history of the world in colour. Vol.18, Industrial revolution and the new wealth (1970) 1 copy
Science, medicine, and the community : the last hundred years : proceedings of the Fifth Boehringer Ingelheim… (1986) 1 copy
The Birth of Broadcasting, The Golden Age of Wireless, The War of Words, Sound and Vision, Competition (The History of… (1995) 1 copy
THEN 1815 1 copy
THEN 1848 1 copy
Associated Works
Chartism: A New Organization of the People (Victorian Library) (1969) — Introduction, some editions — 3 copies
The Origins of the Social Services — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Briggs, Asa
- Birthdate
- 1921-05-07
- Date of death
- 2016-03-15
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Keighley, Yorkshire, England, UK
- Place of death
- Lewes, East Sussex, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Lewes, Sussex, England, UK
- Education
- Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge (BA | 1941)
University of London (BSc | 1941 | Economics) - Occupations
- professor of modern history (University of Leeds)
professor of history (University of Sussex)
provost (Worcester College ∙ Oxford)
chancellor (Open University)
historian - Organizations
- British Intelligence Corps, Bletchley Park (WWII)
University of Leeds (professor of modern history)
University of Sussex (professor of history)
Worcester College, Oxford (provost)
Open University (chancellor)
Workers' Education Association (president) - Awards and honors
- Wolfson History Prize (1999)
Baron Briggs (life peerage, 1976)
Snow Medal (1991)
Pepys Medal (2013)
Fellow, British Academy (1980)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Folio Society (4)
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 86
- Also by
- 14
- Members
- 2,608
- Popularity
- #9,850
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 14
- ISBNs
- 174
- Languages
- 10
- Favorited
- 1
Nevertheless, the date proved a momentous one in British history. As Asa Briggs demonstrates, the BBC soon became an indelible part of British life, as millions of Britons tuned in daily for the steady stream of music, news and variety shows that the broadcaster offered. His book, the second volume in his series chronicling the history of British broadcasting, describes the pivotal fourteen years that followed this event, during which time many of the policies and practices were established that would make the BBC a national icon and a global institution.
Briggs does this through a thematic approach. Over the course of a half-dozen large chapters, he details the BBC’s programming, their audiences, their organization, their expansion into television broadcasting, and their response to the increasingly fraught international situation at the end of the period covered by the volume. He basis his examination on an unfettered access to the BBC’s archives, which he supplements with published works and interviews with many of the principal figures from the era. As with Briggs’s first volume, the result is an institutional history of the BBC that describes the growth of the organization from a top-down perspective.
The growth of the BBC during this period was nothing short of spectacular. During these years the radio audience expanded dramatically, and with it the demands on programmers to provide them with content. Much of this was guided by Reith, who saw broadcasting as a way of educating and uplifting the population. This resulted in programs of a high intellectual quality, but also opened the door for continental competitors such as Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandie who served a diet predominantly of light entertainment. Briggs’s examination of these broadcasters is far less thorough than his coverage of the BBC, though, as there is no examination of their internal workings and their content is only mentioned in the most general terms. In some respects this is understandable and probably unavoidable, but it reinforces the sense of the book as less a history of British broadcasting than one of its main broadcaster.
This is reinforced by the comprehensiveness of Briggs’s coverage of BBC operations. While centered in London, regional operations produced their own share of content, while the BBC sought to extend their presence throughout the empire as well. Here the broadcaster found itself treading warily into the increasingly antagonistic environment of international politics, one in which their competition was not commercially-oriented competitors, but the propaganda ministries of such powers as Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. After 1935 the BBC found itself increasingly at the forefront of the British effort to counteract their campaigns, which influenced the development of overseas broadcasting operations. In this sense, the BBC found itself in an underfunded conflict against fascism years before Britain declared war against Germany in 1939, one it sought to win through its exemplification of “British” values.
Briggs recounts the history of the BBC during these years sympathetically but not uncritically. Throughout it he manages to convey the pioneering spirit that persisted despite the increasingly bureaucratic nature of the organization. This especially comes through in his thorough coverage of the prewar efforts to introduce television, for which great things were expected before the outbreak of war brought a halt to its broadcasts. Nevertheless, the comprehensiveness of his coverage of the BBC only reinforces the institutional focus of his book, to the detriment of other aspects of the history of broadcasting. Topics such as programming and the radio audience are approached only from this perspective, with almost no attempt to describe the programs themselves or assess what people thought of the BBC beyond newspaper coverage and the nascent listener evaluations. Such efforts are understandably difficult given the dearth of program recordings and other materials, but historians such as Simon Potter have since demonstrated how much more there is to learn about British broadcasting during these years. That these works have been built off of Briggs’s efforts in this book is a testament to its indispensability, yet its enormous value should not obscure the limitations of its focus or how much more there is to be learned about its subject.… (more)