• Introduction: Picturing the English Past in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Historical Consciousness and National Identity ; Publishing the Past: Text and Image, Author, Illustrator and Publisher ; The History of The History of England: The Evolution of a Standard Text and its Illustrations ; True Stories and Solid Facts: The Evolution of the English History Textbook ; The Picturesque Face of the Past: The 1840s Novels of William Harrison Ainsworth ; 'A United People': Charles Knight and the Making of a Picturesque History of England ; Separate Spheres and Early Women's History ; John Lingard's History of England: A Catholic History ; Thackeray, A'Beckett, and Leech: 'The Dignity of History' ; The Abuse of Antiquity and the Uses of Myth: The Illustrated Historical Novel after 1850 ; Experiments with History: The Later Novels of W. H. Ainsworth and their Illustrations and the Decline of the Picturesque Historical Novel ; Conclusion

This volume makes a significant addition to the national identity scholarship ... The breadth of evidence makes the book mandatory reading for any scholar interested in the intellectual process of how the writing of history has shaped the national identity issue. Anyone interested in the broader dimensions of history and national identity in the process of political evolution in other European countries should read this book as well ... Mitchell's careful account of how the English national narrative took a specific form between 1830 and 1870 has implications beyond that particular period and country. The arguments she presents deserve consideration well beyond the confines of English history.