31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent "easy" history, June 26, 2001
Wood is best known as a BBC "presenter" of the PBS variety, but he's also an Oxford-trained historian. His books (and television series) are solid history but still accessible. This book and his <I>Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England</I> are almost two halves of a whole, an investigation of what happened in England between the departure of the legions and the arrival of William's Normans, and why, and what the effects were on the further development of the "English" (. . . Celtic, Danish, Norwegian, Norman French . . .) people. Lots of maps and illustrations, lots of archaeological plats, and a nice turn of phrase in nearly every paragraph.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great accessible introduction to this field, May 26, 2002
This review is from: In Search of the Dark Ages (Paperback)
I loved the care this book took not to become too dryly academic, but at the same time to provide good, useful information. Interesting topics and figures in early English history such as Eric Bloodaxe, Stonehenge and Sutton Hoo are introduced in an engaging way, with many intersting illustrations and maps. This is the perfect book for someone looking to find out more about this subject, but not wanting to be put to sleep.
We can only hope that the television series upon which it is based will someday become available for purchase as well.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Meticulously Pieces Together A 1,000-Year Puzzle, March 28, 2005
This review is from: In Search of the Dark Ages (Paperback)
This book was conceived as a companion volume to the author's 1981 BBC documentary series of the same name, and it stays current with a postscript penned in 2001. IN SEARCH OF THE DARK AGES tackles some of the same territory of at least two of Wood's subsequent books, DOMESDAY and IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND, though his objectives and lens are different each time.
Wood's Dark Age parameters are framed by the Roman triumph over the last, first century A.D. Celtic rebellion led by Boudica (that's right; "Boadicea" was a misreading of the calligraphy in the original source) and the Norman Conquest of 1066. In between, he selects a pageant of personages to elucidate succeeding generations and the overlay of first Roman, then Anglo Saxon, Viking and finally Norman cultures: King Arthur, the nameless Sutton Hoo man, Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Eric Bloodaxe, and Ethelred the Unready. The Dark Ages are quite the challenge in which to go looking for the truth, thickly crusted as they are with the opacity caused by too few extant primary sources and too many Medieval fictions, as well as so many change-ups in cultures, language and leadership. Wood does a quality job of reading the sources, critiquing the fictions and sorting out contemporary scholarship and archeological finds.
Wood writes in an astoundingly lucid voice that rings with wonder. The immediacy of his tone, though unsensational, does leave you feeling blood-soaked as you emerge from these violent times. Despite the ruinous invasions and battles, you can see a shift in values, the coloring of what would become the English language and the evolution of a nation. This is an excellent book for general readers wishing to shore up their knowledge of western civilization.
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