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Welcome to the History Extra Podcast, Fascinating Historical Conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine.

The Edwardian era is sometimes regarded as an uneventful stop cap between the innovations of the Victorian period

and the seismic shifts brought about between the In today's episode, the historian Alwyn Turner tells John Borcombe about what life was really like during the reign of Edward the 7th and how anxieties about Britain's place in the world were beginning to take centre stage.

Owin, firstly, really great to have you on the podcast again.

Hello, good to be here.

Last time we spoke about the 1950s, this time we're here to talk about your new book, Little Englanders,

Britain in the Edwardian era, which is this rich in-depth survey of the early years of the 20th century. In fact I think you describe it as an attempt to take the nation's temperature, which is this really lovely phrase.

Firstly though, before we get stuck in, can you just clarify when we say the Edwardian era, do we specifically

mean 1901 to 1910 at the reign of Edward the 7th, or are we talking about a slightly wider period here?

I think it's slightly wider period here?

I think it's slightly wider than that.

It's that period between the death of Queen Victoria,

which is the beginning of 1901,

...