A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 B.C. - 1603 A.D. [Hardcover]

Simon Schama (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 25, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0786866756 | ISBN-13: 978-0786866755 | Edition: 1

Simon Schama's magesterial new book encompasses over 1,500 years of Britain's history, from the first Roman invasions to the early seventeenth century, and the extraordinary reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Schama, the author of the highly acclaimed Citizens and The Embarrassment of Riches, is one of the most popular and celebrated historians of our day, and in this magnificent work he brings history to dramatic life with a wealth of stories and vivid, colorful detail, reanimating familiar figures and events and drawing them skillfully into a powerful and compelling narrative. Schama's perspective moves from the birth of civilization to the Norman Conquest; through the religious wars and turbulance of the Middle Ages to the sovereignties of Henry II, Richard I and King John; through the outbreak of the Black Death, which destroyed nearly half of Europe's population, through the reign of Edward I and the growth of national identity in Wales and Scotland, to the intricate conflicts of the Tudors and the clash between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Driven by the drama of the stories themselves but exploring at the same time a network of interconnected themes--the formation of a nation state, the cyclical nature of power, the struggles between the oppressors and the oppressed--this is a superbly readable and illuminating account of a great nation, and its extraordinary history.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What do you get when you combine the resources and ethos of the BBC with the literary panache of one of the world's best narrative historians? The answer is Simon Schama's A History of Britain, the first volume of which accompanies the BBC-History Channel series of the same name. In a beautifully written and thoughtfully crafted book, studded with striking portraits, pictures, and maps, Schama, the bestselling author of books on European cultural history such as The Embarrassment of Riches and Citizens, as well as 1999's Rembrandt's Eyes, has managed to be both conventional and provocative.

He tells the official version of Britain's island story--from Roman Britain, through the Norman conquest, the struggles of the Henrys and Richards with their barons and clerics, Edward I and the subjugation of Wales, King Death (the plague), and on to the Henrician reformation, before closing with the remarkable reign of the virgin queen, Elizabeth I. But, while sticking to a script familiar to anyone who sat up and listened in history lessons at school, Schama brings it all alive, with memorable prose--Simon de Montfort's rebel parliament is described as inaugurating the "union between patriotism and insubordination"; with Henry VIII, Schama says, "you could practically smell the testosterone." And with fine sensitivity, too, particularly on the symbolism of buildings, memorials, language, and ceremonies, and on the complex relations between England and her Celtic and Catholic neighbors. If history must have gloss, then let it be written and presented like this. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

One suspects that Schama harbors a secret desire to be the Venerable Bede, whom he describes as a "consummate English story-teller, an artful retailer of wonders, a writer of brilliantly imaginative prose." In earlier works on the French Revolution (Citizens) and the golden age of Holland (The Embarrassment of Riches), he perfected his balance: market appeal is never sacrificed to condescension. This new volume is a model of literate elegance, enlivened by good humor and bursts of pugilistic directness: "The Faerie had warts all right," he writes of Elizabeth I. His task is not easy: British national identity is no longer axiomatic. Schama steers away from a Churchillian litany of patriotic glories, and from the revisionist pieties of the Left. In practice, this means, that unlike Landscape and Memory and Dead Certainties, this is not a work of great conceptual boldness. Its strengths lie rather in the detail. From his opening chapter, in which a prehistoric Orkney community is described as a "seaside village," Schama is ever alert to the unexpected. We learn that Hadrian's wall, far from being an impregnable fence, was designed to control the flow of men and goods; that Saint Patrick was not Irish (he was "a Romano-British aristocrat" by birth); and that the Battle of Hastings, at six hours, was one of the longest of battles in medieval history. His book has all the hallmarks that he admires in Bede, his medieval forebear: vigor of language, the capacity to evoke and clear-eyed common sense. (Oct.) market.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Talk Miramax Books by Hyperion; 1 edition (October 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786866756
• ISBN-13: 978-0786866755
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > History > Historical Study & Educational Resources > Reference

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eminently Readable Work by a Serious Scholar January 9, 2001

By Stephen M. Kerwick

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The overlap between excellent scholarship and exceptional readability in today's history writing is exceedingly slim. Schama's History of Britain is as good an example as the market holds today. While it obviously doesn't treat the subject area in the same depth as his his texts on Dutch and French subjects or on Art history, the area covered here is immense. From my standpoint, Prof. Schama performs a herculean task simply to distill the material into such a usable and enjoyable work. I am quite hard pressed to think of a another such work of excellent writing on a large subject area other than Shelby Foote's Civil War volumes, which seem somewhat comparable in every positive respect. Additionally, one can open A History of Britain and read with enjoyment at almost any point and for any period of time. The characterization of key players matches that of the best novels and Schama's writing compares favorably to a somewhat similar work, Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples. I recommend disregarding the less favorable reviews following as unfair in perspective. The combination of a powerful scholar of Simon Schama's caliber with such graceful writing is almost unheard of and the alternative of tedious fact recitation is no choice at all. This is a book to purchase twice, once for yourself and again as a gift for a good friend.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of British history December 10, 2000

By Andrew E Werchniak

Format:Hardcover

Whether or not you enjoy this work will depend in large measure on the type of experience you are seeking. If it is linear narrative, elegant prose with a dash of wit, historical accuracy, and attractive pictures, you will be well served. If you seek an in-depth analysis of ANY of the topics covered, however, you will be sorely disappointed. In order to provide this and still cover the vast expanse of time he seeks to review, Schama's text would need to balloon to at least five volumes (a prohibitive size for a commercially-oriented publication). The novice historian will appreciate the fact that no prior familiarity with British history is assumed; the often bewildering array of cultural groups is clearly outlined and enough maps pepper the text to give the reader an appreciation of the role geography played in the development of the British isles. The more experienced individual will enjoy the lively pace, excellent focus, and interesting anectodotes. Overall, I highly recommend it and would definitely purchase it again.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Back to real history October 23, 2000

By Peter Hack

Format:Hardcover

This is history as it should be: written with wit and perception. His telling phrases convey meaning - even with anacronisms slipping in occasionally! It does what an overview should do - it drives you to read more. It sweeps over thousands of years and picks out key turning points and explains them. Schama puts the 'story' back into history. A welcome addition to any non-specialist's bookshelf who wants a knowledge of the period with an enjoyable read.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars This is NOT Early British History! May 13, 2009

By Anne Orsi

Format:Hardcover

I own a number of histories of Britain, and while I agree with most of the reviewers that this one is engaging, I am greatly disappointed in this book as a whole.

The tone is easy to read, but the book's substance has the consistency of belly-button lint. Light to the point of irrelevant in far too many places, this volume is a good read for anyone who wants a fast refresher of high school English history. It is weak on causal connections, explanations, and the intrigue that I think makes history so fascinating.

Worst of all, its subtitle is completely misleading.

I bought it primarily because it purported to cover pre-Roman Britain. It's subtitle, "A History of Britain at the Edge of the World 3500 B.C. - 1603 A.D." indicated to me that it would address that period. And so it does - for six and a half pages, three of which are completely take up by photographs of neolithic sites. This coverage hardly merits a subtitle touting the book as a history of Britain from 3500 B.C.

Only one paragraph is dedicated to Julius Caesar's disastrous invasion attempts that failed two years in succession, and only two paragraphs talk about the British resistance to Claudius' successful invasion. Within two more pages, Hadrian's wall has already been built. The remaining 20 pages of the first chapter are a very general overview of the next 700 years. That's right: it takes only twenty of this book's nearly 400 pages to cover over 4,000 years of history....

I expected to read about discoveries of neolithic sites (only those in the Orkneys are mentioned - even Stonehenge and Britain's fabulous barrows are conspicuously absent here); the settlement of the Britain and its islands by the Celts; the effect of the Roman conquest and later withdrawal; the pre-Roman religions and spread of Christianity; trade and inter-cultural exchange among the peoples of Britain and the rest of Europe and Scandanavia; invasions of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and the viking Danes and Norsemen; magnificent kings like Alfred the Great (the only pre-Conquest king given so much as a passing mention); important religious influences in the guise of men like Bede and Augustine. All of these are covered in so little time and space that I can honestly say I learned more about this era in my poor, Southern, rural, American elementary school.

Chapter 2 starts with the Norman Invasion. Only a few pages of that chapter address the political and other events that explain why William the Conqueror thought he had a valid claim to the throne in the first place. There is practically nothing of the lives of any people other than notable rulers.

I cannot fault the rest of the book's treatment of English history. It does not go into great detail about much of anything, but as a cursory review of the high points of the monarchy it does passably well. It glosses over the bloody, twenty-year civil war fought between Stephen and Matilda over the crown of Henry II, but gives fairly admirable treatment of Henry III and Eleanor of Acquitaine and their incompetent and vile offspring.

Very little is said of the War of the Roses. We are told virtually nothing about Richard III's usurpation of the throne or of his nefarious kidnapping and execution of two adolescent sons of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, which ignited carnage among English nobility for a generation.

It is obvious that the Tudors are of much greater interest to the author than the Plantagenets (or Angevins), at least according to the detail with which he describes their reigns. The last 125 pages are devoted to the Tudors, who ruled England for 116 years. They were fascinating monarchs, indeed, but there is such a wealth of information about them I was still left feeling a bit cheated. I really wanted a readable history of early Britain.

Now, I suppose I could have been a more discerning buyer and read more in-depth reviews to find out whether this was the book I was looking for. I hope that this review provides someone else with that warning.

And although they are probably out of print, I highly recommend Thomas B. Costain's histories for great readability, more detail and better analysis of post-Conquest Britain. Start with The Conquering Family. Read more ›

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better general British history books out there November 24, 2003

By Megami

Format:Hardcover

The first in this three part series (and companion to the amazingly good BBC documentary series) this is a fact filled history book that is actually easy to get into - you can actually read it cover to cover rather than look up in the index what interests you. Much of this is down to Schama's engaging writing style - not quite casual, but definitely not dry and dusty. This book manages to steer an even keel, avoiding parochialism and Politically Correct revisionism. An entertaining read for those interested in British history - the title really says it all.