The Shortest History of England: Empire and Division from the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit―A Retelling for Our Times (The Shortest History Series)

I found this book on my way to a 7-day tour of London and Oxford and found it to be the perfect length, depth, and summary of England to bring my trip to life—and provide great new insight on modern politics both inside England and on the Continent.

We recently took a vacation in the UK, and as we were touring around the country, I realized that I was really working off of limited historical context (as an American). So I wanted to get as well-versed on British history as quickly as reasonably possible over the course of a packed 11 day trip. After browsing available content to meet this need (no multi-volume Churchill, thank you), I came across this book. Recognizing that it tries to compress two millennia of history into a few hundred pages, you just have to accept that some material cannot get a full treatment. As a result, there are events that get mentioned with zero context that might trigger a distant memory for someone who learned British history in grade school but, for this neophyte, required some ad hoc Wikipedia. All that being said, I came away with a better understanding of the history of occupation and influence that led to much of modern Britain. I still would require a house-sized family tree diagram to truly understand the convoluted history of royalty, but I felt like I came away with a workable handle on it. Having traveled from London through Scotland and back, the book’s running theme of north/south divide was particularly germane.For what I needed, this clearly written and reasonably paced book certainly delivered. For true scholars already familiar with British history, it is definitely not quite enough unless you are really looking for a treatment on English north/south politics. Also, it is clearly focused on British history from an English lens as should be evident from the name.

Informative, but not at all well written. Confusing use of hyphenation and parentheses in sentence structure made the narrative very difficult to follow. Disorganized, seemed to bounce around randomly, without a coherent flow.Once the history got into the last 100 years, in particularly into the last 20 to 50 years, it became clear that the author had a very clear political bias and was highly critical of recent British government policy. The tone of the book changed significantly at that point, and any pretense of objective historical overview got set aside in favor of scathing political commentary.I only skimmed the last 20 years or so of Britain's history, it just got too laborious to follow.As a brief overview of British history (what I was looking for), I'd give it barely passing marks. It was better than nothing, but it was so badly written that I am sure there are better choices available.

The Shortest History of England by James Hawes is a remarkably thorough history considering its size. Enjoyable and informative for both historians and those simply curious.Before everyone gets up in arms, when I include historians in who would enjoy the book, I don't mean because there is going to be new material for them. But historians, both professional and amateur, tend to focus and specialize. In doing so we can easily lose sight of the bigger picture. This work serves to help keep things in context while also keeping it short. For those who simply want a general idea of the history of England, this is ideal both because it is brief and because it offers substantial notes and a bibliography so the reader can delve deeper into whatever period or events they find most interesting.While this is not exclusively a social history, which it never claimed to be, it does include social and cultural changes alongside the political and military. Again, with the notes and bib, a reader is well armed to explore the history that appeals to them.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

There’s a lot of ground to cover and James Hawes does it reasonably well. I liked the graphics and the maps; certainly the maps were very useful. I thought that the text was somewhat opinionated, especially as I reached the current time period. I would have preferred more objectivity. While the writing style is conversational, I did not find it as pleasing as the writing in “The Shortest History of China”. Overall, though, it was a worthwhile read. Thank you to Netgalley and The Experiment for the advance reader copy.

Very much enjoyed the format of this title and the compact way it shared history over multiple centuries. It was readable and not overwhelming, but I also felt like I learned quite a bit.Definitely curious about the other title by this author now, which always feels like a sign of a good book to me!

Produto entregue em perfeitas condições e dentro do prazo.

Does exactly what it is supposed to. Enlightening, well researched and interesting. Great read.