The History

City of London

'No one knows more secrets about the City of London than David Kynaston ... about what goes on behind the copper-plate facades of old City firms, or in the boardrooms of the gleaming glasshouses. Kynaston is the historian of the City’ - Sunday Express

Wonderful... This is real history; living history

A work of breathtaking scope and accomplishment

Everyone should read David Kynaston's riveting history of the City: a subject too important to be left to the bankers

David Kynaston is the great chronicler of Britain's recent past

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. After graduating from New College Oxford, he studied at the London School of Economics. A professional historian, in addition to the four-volume The City of London, his works include King Labour: A History of the British Working Class, 1850-1914, histories of the Financial Times and the stockbrokers Cazenove &amp; co., and the first two volumes in a planned history of Britain between 1945 and 1979, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 and Family Britain, 1951-57. 
 
David Milner, editor of this volume, was born in 1971. After postgraduate work at university he became an editor for Secker &amp; Warburg at Random House. He now works as a freelance editor for leading publishers, and lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two children.

David Kynaston's ground-breaking history of the City of London, published in four volumes between 1994 and 2001, is a modern classic. Skilfully edited into a single volume by David Milner, it tells a story as dramatic as any novel, while explaining the mysteries of the financial world in a way that we can all understand. 
 
This is a story of booms, busts and bankruptcies, dress codes, eating habits, pay, humour, changing architecture and the unique culture of the Square Mile which brings us up to the modern age.

Illusions of Gold 1914 - 1945

The City Of London Volume 3

The third volume of David Kynaston's ground-breaking quartet The City of London, which confirms his study as one of the most ambitious historical projects.

A fascinating book, deeply researched and admirably written by an author who is a master of his subject and also of the light touch

A splendidly entertaining history... This book is both immensely readable and an invaluable guide to a set of institutions whose role in British political and economic history is imperfectly understood

David Kynaston's achievement... is to make the whole thing read like a novel... An altogether exceptional book

The City has never been good at justifying or explaining itself to the wider world, but in David Kynaston it has found a wonderfully gifted and diligent interpreter

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. After graduating from New College Oxford, he studied at the London School of Economics. A professional historian, in addition to the four-volume The City of London, his works include King Labour: A History of the British Working Class, 1850-1914, histories of the Financial Times and the stockbrokers Cazenove &amp; co., and the first two volumes in a planned history of Britain between 1945 and 1979, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 and Family Britain, 1951-57.

Illusions of Gold, the third volume of David Kynaston's magnificent quartet, The City of London, sweeps us from 1914 to 1945, through years of fluctuating fortunes that began with the City at an all-time high, and ended with the 'Square Mile' ravaged by bombs, at its lowest ebb ever. 
 
With unerring judgement and story-telling verve, Kynaston takes us through the City's vain attempt to recover the glory days before the First World War, in the return to the Gold Standard. He follows its tussles with government over control of monetary policy, investigates its increasingly important links with British industry and gives a pioneering account of its controversial role in the politics of appeasement. 
 
Kynaston's great strength is his combination of vivid narrative with meticulous scholarship, based on an unparalleled variety of unpublished sources. The City of London is now hailed as one of the most ambitious and rewarding historical projects of recent times.

Golden Years 1890-1914

The City Of London Volume 2

The second volume of David Kynaston's critically acclaimed history of the City, this is a fascinating journey into the financial heart of London through  the golden years, 1890- 1914.

[An] enthralling history...He illustrates it with rich anecdotes, an extraordinary range of sources, and lively writing. It is a wonderful piece of work

Overflows with lines that leap off any front page today...Great history

His City towers over the Thames basin, an ant hill of energy, speculation and greed. The story is never dry, for Kynaston tells it as human drama...This is economic history as its most glittering

Between 1890 and 1914 the City of London was all dominant as Britain's legendary gold standard reigned supreme across the globe. Golden Years anatomises an elite at the height of its powers. Combining brilliant scholarship with high entertainment, and drawing on an unparalleled range of original sources, David Kynaston brings the city triumphant into the mainstream of British and world history.

A World of its Own 1815-1890

The City Of London Volume 1

The first ever comprehensive history of the City: volume one of a three-volume work covering the period from 1815 to the Big Bang.

Exceptionally readable...a colourful narrative full of well-judged extracts from contemporary material

An absorbing read, full of good quotations and riveting anecdote... A significant piece of scholarship

It would be difficult to conceive a more lucid or entertaining study of a subject both immensely complex and of the greatest historical importance

Charlotte Brontë once wrote: "At the West End you may be amused, but in the City you are deeply excited." A better blurb for this book is hard to imagine... Wonderfully vivid

It's rare to be able to say that a historical book is positively life-enhancing but David Kynaston, in his vivacious yet measured book, has proved that he is a rare kind of writer

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. After graduating from New College Oxford, he studied at the London School of Economics. A professional historian, in addition to the four-volume The City of London, his works include King Labour: A History of the British Working Class, 1850-1914, histories of the Financial Times and the stockbrokers Cazenove &amp; co., and the first two volumes in a planned history of Britain between 1945 and 1979, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 and Family Britain, 1951-57.

A World of Its Own tells the story of the City of London's nineteenth century ascent to its position as the world's leading international financial centre. We witness the rise of the merchant banks, the growth of the Stock Exchange, the internationalism of the money market, and the characters behind these developments, like the mercurial Nathan Rothschild or the dour Joshua Bates. 
 
High history is interwoven with high drama: the burning of the Royal Exchange on a snowy night in 1838, the hectic making of fortunes from South American guano; the Baring crisis of 1890, when the city's most respected house was rescued by its keenest rival. A World of Its Own is at once a powerful narrative, peopled with extraordinary characters, and a brilliant work of social and economic history.

David Kynaston

'Like its three predecessors, A Club No More is a work of breathtaking scope and accomplishment.'

Magisterial. Kynaston is compulsively readable on all the great city scandals of recent years.  But apart from anything else, his final volume is worth reading as a social documentary of our times.'

The fifty or so years which are chronicled here in impressive detail were momentous ones for the City-an outstanding achievement.'

The four volumes of his City history of the last 200 years are a splendid achievement-invaluable.'

It is a good story, superbly told by Kynaston, who holds together a very diverse narrative with considerable skill.  Its greatest merit is that it can be read by specialist and non-specialist alike.

Like the earlier volumes, this book is rich in detail and splendidly entertaining-Kynaston relates these events with great verve.

David Kynaston chronicles these changes with elegance, detachment and wit, and striking flashes of perception-a masterpiece of sharp social observation.

The City of London. Vol IV: A Club No More is the fourth and final volume of David Kynaston's epic history of the square mile in the modern era. This lively and informative book takes the story from the post-war era, when the City was hemmed in by bombsites and austere Chancellors, through to very recent developments, such as the "Big-Bang" deregulation of 1986. This is as much a social history as a financial study, with interesting discussions of the changing class and complexion of the City, and with fascinating details on the early computerisation of the big companies. As with earlier volumes Kynaston's style is that of an anecdotal storyteller. Colourful characters, dramatic boardroom struggles and heated exchanges between politicians and bankers dominate the pages.

David Kynaston

Praise for The City Of London Volume 4

'Like its three predecessors, A Club No More is a work of breathtaking scope and accomplishment.'

Magisterial. Kynaston is compulsively readable on all the great city scandals of recent years. But apart from anything else, his final volume is worth reading as a social documentary of our times.'

The fifty or so years which are chronicled here in impressive detail were momentous ones for the City-an outstanding achievement.'

'Like its three predecessors, A Club No More is a work of breathtaking scope and accomplishment.'

Magisterial. Kynaston is compulsively readable on all the great city scandals of recent years. But apart from anything else, his final volume is worth reading as a social documentary of our times.'

The fifty or so years which are chronicled here in impressive detail were momentous ones for the City-an outstanding achievement.'

'Like its three predecessors, A Club No More is a work of breathtaking scope and accomplishment.'

Magisterial. Kynaston is compulsively readable on all the great city scandals of recent years. But apart from anything else, his final volume is worth reading as a social documentary of our times.'

The fifty or so years which are chronicled here in impressive detail were momentous ones for the City-an outstanding achievement.'

Books by David Kynaston

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