Jonathan Conlin

I research modern British cultural history, from the mid-eighteenth century up to the present.

My first book, The Nation's Mantelpiece, focussed on the history of the National Gallery, London. In addition to considering how the worlds of art, business and high politics interacted in the nineteenth and twentieth century this study considered the different ways in which historical change has been understood and represented.

I have also explored a number of topics in Georgian and Victorian urban history. And an opportunity to work on the BBC series Trade Roots (presented by Michael Buerk) gave me an insight into how the past is presented on radio. Since then I have researched the history of arts documentaries on television, in the UK and US.