Recommend me a book on British (or any country's) history.

Cafe Society
1

As I mentioned in another thread, I am following a summer reading program at my local library that consists of several categories of books that need to be read. One of the categories is along the lines of “read a book about another country’s history.” I looked in the section at my library on British history but was absolutely overwhelmed by the number of books on the shelves. Can someone recommend me a well-written, interesting and not-too-lengthy book on history? I include the last criterium only because I’m short on time – I have several other books I have to read by July 31.

I was looking at British history books because I’m interested in the area (especially Scotland) and the history, but I’ll be willing to give any good history book a chance. The topic can be broad or narrow. Thanks in advance for your help!

2

I really enjoyed The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. It is about the Australia’s history as penal colony and has a fair bit about Britain at the time too.

It is a fascinating though grim read.

3

I was just going to say The Fatal Shore, but calm kiwi beat me to it. Not the shortest book, but definitely very interesting and well written. It’s about the founding of Australia, though, not a full history of the country, if that makes any difference to you.

4

Gee, I was going to mentiong The Fatal Shore, too.

The best history I read recently was The Island at the Center of the World
by Russell Shorto, a complete history of the colony of New Netherland. It’s absolutely fascinating, and comes up with a corrective to all other histories of the time.

5

I just finished and enjoyed Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey. It was on sale in Sam’s Club of all places. It’s English history; about Elizabeth I from her birth to the early years of her reign. A quick read, I finished it in four days.

6

If you’re interested in Scottish history, you could try some books by John Prebble, like Glencoe: The story of the Massacre or Culloden. They both cover specific events, but give good snapshots of the relationship between Scotland and England at two key periods. More broadly, you could try Prebble’s The Lion in the North: One Thousand Years of Scottish History.

7

Well, i was also going to suggest The Fatal Shore. It does not, however, qualify as a “not-too-lengthy” book, as desired by the OP. Still, if you have the time it’s definitely worth reading.

If you want a shorter history book about Australia, you might try any one of the numerous excellent books by Henry Reynolds, whose work focuses on the impact of European colonization on Australia’s aboriginal population.

If autobiographies qualify as history books, you could also do much worse than one of these books:

Jill Ker Conway, The Road From Coorain

Bernard Smith, The Boy Adeodatus: The Portrait of a Lucky Young Bastard

Both give amazing insights into different periods and different aspects of twentieth-century Australian history.

I’m no expert on British history, but there are a few classics. One of the best (but very long at 600+ pages), is:

E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class

8

A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman is a fascinating look at 14th century Europe, a time of plague, wars, social and religious upheaval. Sound familiar?

9

Tess’s comment reminded me of two other books: The Guns of August, also by Tuchman, and Is Paris Burning? by Collins and Lapierre.

The Guns of August is a fascinating account of the way that Europe toppled into World War I. It has the additional interesting link that President Kennedy referred to it during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as a case-study in how not to handle a crisis.

Is Paris Burning? is an account of the Allies’ liberating Paris in 1944, and how the Germans actually resisted carrying out Hitler’s orders to burn Paris rather than let it fall to the Allies. Interesting both for its account of the struggles by the Germans military to avoid carrying out orders that had no military purpose, and for an account of an actual liberation, with grateful citizens turning out en masse, as opposed to an invasion and occupation. (Oops - did I say that out loud? :wink: )

10

I would recommend a couple of books:

How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill-Very readable account of how the Irish monastaries reserves much of the culture that had been destroyed in other parts of the word.

The Middle East by Bernard Lewis. Very readable introduction to the lands encompassed by the Ottoman and Persian territories.

11

The History of Britain by Simon Schama - all three volumes. Long, sure, but incredibly readable.

12

As the founding member of The Fatal Shore club :smiley: I have to say it is s not a short book but reads very much like a novel.

I was in London when I first read this book. For a Kiwi in London to read a history of Oz…well it means it was a damn good book.
I am so happy to not be alone in liking that book. I first read it in the late 80’s and have almost begged many others to read it. It is a fascinating study of a countries origins. I don’t think another country started like Australia did. I think it goes a fair way to expalining the differences between Aussies and Kiwis.

13

If Autobiographies do count Wild Swans is a very good read. Three generations of Chinese women.

Foot binding…sooooooooo not a good read.

14

So I hear this book The Fatal Shore is supposed to be good … :wink:
I definitely will read it, but I may have to wait till after the program is finished because of its length.

I’m checking my library’s catalogue for the other books. Biographies and autobiographies are acceptable. The suggestions so far are excellent. Keep them coming!

15

I recently received my doctorate in British history (specializing in the English Reformation), so I wanted to write in to this thread. This list is going to be a little more specialized than what you might want, but these are my nine favorite secondary-source books that I used while writing my dissertation, plus a tenth written by a man with whom I felt very honored to study.

Tudor England, John Guy. The best overview of the dynasty, equally covering politics, society and religion.

*New Worlds, Lost Worlds*, Susan Brigden. Brigden’s overview of Tudor England is more colored by social history than Guy’s work. The text takes care to examine the impact of the “new worlds” of reformation and renaissance on English society, as well as enlightening the reader on the “lost worlds” of the heretofore silent English poor and destitute.

Henry VIII, Jack Scarisbrick. A complex yet readable biography of the complex yet fascinating monarch. Forthright in its (IMO absolutely correct) contention that King Hal was at heart a Catholic.

*Thomas Cranmer: A Life*, Diarmaid MacCulloch. Award-winning biography of the theological architect of the Reformation. An immense work of scholarship by one of the field’s most dynamic authors.

*The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c.1400-c.1580*, Eamon Duffy. A well-researched examination of popular Catholicism before, during and after the Reformation. A book which challenges the view that Protestantism was a popular force, and argues for the inherent strength of medieval traditionalist religion.

The English Reformation, Geoffrey Dickens. The classic work on the subject. Dickens’ contention that the Reformation was supported by significant sections of both the clergy and laity was accepted as historiographic gospel for decades.

*English Reformations*, Christopher Haigh. The “slow Reformation” historians’ counter-point to The English Reformation, it argues, as does Duffy’s work, that the traditional medieval church was strong and popular. The plural of the title conveys Haigh’s belief that the Reformation was not a continuous process, but rather a fitful result of the often opposing religious edicts of successive Tudor monarchs.

Reformation in Britain and Ireland*, Felicity Heal. Heal seeks to draw the English Reformation into the larger picture of religious reform throughout the Isles. The book examines the reasons behind the relative success or failure of Protestantism within the regions of Britain and Ireland.

*Religion and the Decline of Magic*, Keith Thomas. A delightful book on popular religion and magic–which, as Thomas is quick to note, sometimes were one and the same. An necessary read for those who are trying to understand the concern of the early Protestant church about witchcraft.

*The Pity of War: Explaining World War I*, Niall Ferguson. An absorbing, disturbing study of The Great War, designed to challenge as much as inform. Ferguson is quickly building a name for himself in authoring works which straddle the line between history and polemic, and this is his most accessible book to date.

There were literally dozens of other works which I could have cited here. Apart from other books by the authors listed above, I could have listed books by Richard Rex, Lucy Wooding, Alexandra Walsham, Claire Cross, Peter Marshall, Patrick Collinson and Alec Ryrie.

Full disclosure: during the course of my dissertation, I was able to meet several of the authors listed above, and got to know many of them well. Felicity Heal was my supervisor at Jesus College, Oxford, and Niall Ferguson was my college advisor. Diarmaid MacCulloch was my secondary supervisor. Christopher Haigh was my chief examiner, and Alexandra Walsham was my secondary examiner. Alec Ryrie was a student at the same time as me. Susan Brigden taught a seminar class which I attended. I was lucky enough to meet Guy, Rex, Cross and Marshall at conferences. My dissertation was cited in Heal’s Reformation in Britain and Ireland. Sorry if the above seems a bit self-serving, but I am still feeling a little chuffed by hearing that my dissertation passed at last…

16

Since this is a request for book recommendations it would fit better at Cafe Society.
I’ll move it on over for you.

TVeblen
(moving thread from IMHO)

17

That done, I’ll enter another vote for The Fatal Shore–not that it’s needed but I’ll grab any opportunity to pitch this book. It’s really that great.

Also another vote for Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror or Guns of August. They’re both immensely readable, and suck you right into the narrative.

Veb