Click here to access the Hodder Education website to find out more about books in the Access to History series.

Access to History Mainstream Clear coverage of core topics
Access to History In Depth In depth analysis, focusing on shorter periods
Access to History Themes Examining historical issues over longer periods, useful for synoptic units
Access to History Context Foundation core texts, facilitating students’ transition from GCSE to AS/A Level

‘These Access to History books do certainly give everything a very clear outline! It’s difficult to see how you can do without this sort of book...It’s succinct but with enough depth to avoid the accusation of being skimpy, it’s readable and tells a logical story, it breaks the topic down into rational issues as its section headings, and it then makes an attempt to offer assessment items of different types and levels of difficulty to see whether the candidate’s study has been worthwhile.’
SATH (on Stalin and Khrushchev: the USSR 1924-64, Second Edition)

‘Hodder Murray’s excellent Access to History series is aimed primarily at students studying AS level, A level and Higher. But the general reader could do much worse than indulge in these first-class primers on a variety of key historical aspects.’
BBC History

The Access to History series grows every year, and new titles or new editions regularly keep the material fresh and relevant to today’s students.

New titles and editions include:

Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894-1924
Third edition
Michael Lynch
978 0340 88589 5 May 05 160pp

Provides both a narrative and analysis of the background, course and effects of the 1917 revolution. Beginning with an overview of Imperial Russia and the problems and challenges it faced, this book goes on to look at the growth of revolutionary movements which would eventually lead to the October Revolution. It then examines how the Bolsheviks consolidated their power under Lenin.

The USA and Vietnam 1945-75
Third edition
Vivienne Sanders
978 0340 92930 8 June 07 192pp

A thorough and lucid account of America's involvement in Vietnam during the period 1945-75. The book also looks at the pressure for peace on the US home front and how this had an impact on the eventual withdrawal and fallout from the war.

Votes for Women
Third Edition
Paula Bartley
978 0340 92685 7 April 2007 192pp

The book introduces the key figures involved in the women's suffrage movement and goes on to consider the arguments advanced for and against votes for women. The narrative also highlights the pace and extent of suffragist and suffragette activity, and assesses their contribution to the First World War.

The People's Republic of China 1949-76
Second Edition
Michael Lynch
978 0340 92927 8 June 2007 192pp

Charting China’s remarkable and tumultuous development from the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 to Mao’s death in 1976, this book examines the widespread social and economic change that resulted from the Communist revolution, including the changes to agriculture, the five-year-plans and the ‘hundred flowers’ campaign. It then goes on to look at the reasons for the Cultural Revolution and its legacy.

Britain: Foreign Affairs 1919-1939
Third Edition
Alan Farmer
978 0340 90703 0 March 2006 192pp

Focussing on the major themes in British Foreign Policy in the inter-war years, this book starts with Britain's involvement in the Versailles Peace Settlement and how this impacted on foreign policy in the 1920s. Particular attention is paid to Anglo-German relations in the 1930s and the debate over appeasement, as well as examining why Britain went to war in 1939 rather than earlier.

Italy: The Rise of Fascism 1915-1945
Third Edition
Mark Robson
978 0340 90706 1 April 2006 160pp

Starting by examining the weakness of Liberal Italy and how the First World War increased its problems, this book goes on to analyse and explain the rise of Fascism and Mussolini's subsequent consolidation of power. It also includes detailed chapters on life in Fascist Italy, its economy, political system and foreign policy, before concluding with an examination of why Mussolini's regime collapsed in 1943.

Germany: The Third Reich 1933-1945
Third Edition
Geoff Layton
978 0340 88894 0 July 2005 224pp

Charting the emergence of Nazism to Hitler's consolidation of power in 1933–4, this book analyses the economic and foreign policies of the Third Reich as well as providing an in-depth look at the Nazi system and how that impacted on various social and cultural groups. It also assesses the legacy of the Third Reich and how different historical interpretations of this period have developed over time.