Asa Briggs: A Biography

Royal Fireworks is pleased to publish in the United States Adam Sisman's biography of Asa Briggs. Asa Briggs was one of Britain’s most prominent people in the second half of the twentieth century. He was a leading academic who first gained fame by graduating at age twenty in 1941 from both Cambridge and the London School of Economics with coveted first-class degrees from both institutions. No one had ever done the like in the entire history of British academia, and no one has duplicated the feat since. After a stint as a codebreaker in World War II, Briggs quickly established himself as a leading historian with such publications as "The Age of Improvement," "Victorian People," and "Victorian Cities," and he achieved popular recognition through frequent appearances on the BBC. Briggs designed the innovative interdisciplinary organization of the University of Sussex and was appointed its Vice-Chancellor. Under him it became both intellectually exciting and highly fashionable.