Dr Seldon has written or edited over 40 books on politics, history and education.

Published books and booklets include:

  • Churchill’s Indian Summer: The Conservative Government, 1951-55 (Hodder & Stoughton, 1981)
  • By Word of Mouth: Elite Oral History (with Joanna Pappworth, Methuen, 1983)
  • Ruling Performance: Governments since 1945 (ed., with Peter Hennessy, Blackwell, 1987)
  • Political Parties Since 1945 (ed., Philip Allan, 1988)
  • The Thatcher Effect (ed., with Dennis Kavanagh, Oxford Paperbacks, 1989)
  • Politics UK (Joint author, Philip Allan, 1991)
  • Conservative Century (ed., with Stuart Ball, Oxford University Press, 1994)
  • The Major Effect (ed., with Dennis Kavanagh, Macmillan, 1994)
  • The Heath Government 1970-1974 (ed., with Stuart Ball, Routledge, 1996)
  • The Contemporary History Handbook (ed., with Brian Brivati etc, Manchester University Press, 1996)
  • The Ideas that Shaped Post-war Britain (ed., with David Marquand, Fontana Press, 1996)
  • How Tory Governments Fall (ed., Fontana, 1997)
  • Major: A Political Life (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1997)
  • 10 Downing Street: An Illustrated History (HarperCollins Illustrated, 1999)
  • The Powers Behind the Prime Minister (with Dennis Kavanagh, HarperCollins, 1999)
  • Britain under Thatcher (with Daniel Collings, Routledge, 2000)
  • The Foreign Office: An Illustrated History (HarperCollins Illustrated, 2000)
  • A New Conservative Century (with Peter Snowdon, Centre for Policy Studies, 2001)
  • The Blair Effect 1997-2001 (ed., Little, Brown, 2001)
  • Public and Private Education: The Divide Must End (Social Market Foundation, 2001)
  • Partnership not Paternalism (Institute for Public Policy Research, 2002)
  • Brave New City: Brighton & Hove, Past, Present, Future (Pomegranate Press, 2002)
  • The Conservative Party: An Illustrated History (with Peter Snowdon, Sutton Press, 2004)
  • New Labour, Old Labour: The Labour Government, 1974-79 (ed., with Kevin Hickson, Routledge, 2004)
  • Blair: The Biography, Vol I (Free Press, 2004)
  • The Blair Effect 2001-05 (ed., with Dennis Kavanagh, Cambridge University Press, 2005)
  • Recovering Power: The Conservatives in Opposition since 1867 (ed., with Stuart Ball, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)
  • Blair Unbound:  The Biography, Vol II (with Peter Snowdon and Daniel Collings, Simon & Schuster, 2007)
  • Blair’s Britain 1997-2007 (ed., Cambridge University Press, 2007)
  • Trust: How We Lost it and How to Get It Back (Biteback Publishing, 2009)
  • An End to Factory Schools (Centre for Policy Studies, 2009)
  • Why Schools, Why Universities? (Cass, 2010)
  • Brown at 10 (with Guy Lodge, Biteback Publishing, 2011)
  • Public Schools and the Great War (with David Walsh, Pen & Sword Military, 2013)
  • Schools United (Social Market Foundation, 2014)
  • The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador's Residence in Washington (with Daniel Collings, Flammarion, 2014)
  • Beyond Happiness: The Trap of Happiness and How to Find Deeper Meaning and Joy (Yellow Kite, 2015)
  • The Coalition Effect, 2010-2015 (ed., with Mike Finn, Cambridge University Press, 2015)
  • Cameron at 10 (with Peter Snowdon, William Collins, 2015), Cameron at 10: The Verdict (William Collins, 2016)
  • The Cabinet Office 1916-2016 – The Birth of Modern British Government (with Jonathan Meakin, BiteBack Publishing, 2016)