Customer Reviews

The Oxford Companion to British History

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I have been using the "Oxford Companion to British History" on a regular basis since its publication. I am not a specialist in British History, but my work as a cataloguer of rare and antiquarian British books has required me to have a working knowledge of British History. This book has proved invaluable to me in my work. Moreover, I can rarely resist the temptation to browse the Companion--it is a text that draws the reader in. Highly recommended.

Now in a newly revised and expanded edition, The Oxford Companion To British History is a dictionary-style, 1056-page resource reference which is filled from cover to cover with names, places, terms, and events comprising the history of Great Britain and organized alphabetically for easy lookup. Compiled and edited by John Cannon (formerly the Chair of Modern History at Newcastle-upon-Tyne until 1992) and brimming with extensive facts and details, The Oxford Companion To British History is a top-notch reference which is enhanced with the inclusion of 12 maps, and would prove to be an invaluable cornerstone for any academic library's British History collection.

This massive 1,000+ page guide to all things British is a solemn, sometimes irreverent dissection of the United Kingdom. More than just a reference work describing the doings of politicians and generals. This companion carefully moves into areas not normally covered by such works. There are entries that discuss various major industries - shipbuilding, mining, gas and cotton - and on aspects of private and domestic life, like childbirth, housing, health and food. While the growth, meaning and importance of sports is discussed, only two athletes rate their own entries (the soccer star Stanley Matthews, knighted for his accomplishments on the field, and cricketer W.G. Grace, the Victorian star who continued playing first-rate cricket until he was 60). The only flaw in the entire book is a production problem that caused the deletion of pages 949 through 980, or between James Ussher and William Whewell. Not a noticeable problem, unless you're looking up information about Queen Victoria.

I just purchased the book a few days ago and highyly recommend it. Pages 949-980 are in my copy so do not be afraid that they are missing.

Nice little pieces on the areas Britain has affected but now leaves alone - nearly 4 pages on Australia, 1 each on Canada and New Zealand. Also helpful to find those weird, typically British obsessions: pigeon-fancying, seaside holidays and Tractarianism (go look them up). The kind of book you go to to look up one topic and find yourself reading for an hour. Failed to score 5 stars because it failed to record biographies on influential British sportsmen.

Who was Oliver Cromwell? Was he a hero or a villain? What was the English Civil War all about? What happened after the Norman Conquest...and did the Anglo-Saxons like it? To these and many other questions about what happened at each and every stage in British History, and to your many questions about Who did What, and When did she/he do it, you will certainly find a lot of the answers in this comprehensive and 'heavyweight' one-volume encyclopaedia.
To controversial questions about historical events and characters, you will also find some interesting answers in this book, though not always the expected ones; the concise and well-written entries (of substantial length) are occasionally controversial and often decidedly opinionated, but this helps to make them a remarkably good read; not nearly as dry as the entries in other 'encyclopaedia-like' reference works.

This comprehensive reference work is useful for people at all levels of historical knowledge, from enthusiastic Anglophiles with a desire to "fill in the blanks" in their historical knowledge, through to people studying history at university who need a reference that has substantial length and detail in each and every entry. I also heartily recommend this book to that vast majority of the population who appear to know little or nothing about British history; this is a history with absolute relevance to the many questions and changes that we currently confront in our capitalist democratic societies.