Customer Reviews

AN UTTERLY IMPARTIAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN OR 2000 YEARS OF UPPER-CLASS IDIOTS IN CHARGE

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is a summary of British history from Caesar tried to invade the island 55 years BC until Hitler tried to do the same during World War 2. It is written in an amusing way, and is a very easy read. The author's humour may not suit everyone, but personally I found it quite amusing.

I would recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in history but wants an easy, humours approach. It covers many important aspects of world history, and it's full of "fun facts". And to all you Americans: This book also deals with the US, both as an English colony, and also as an decisive military factor during both WW1 and WW2.

The book contains facts that you can hardly find in any traditional British history.
Fun to read, although the jokes sometimes go overboard.
Written from by an Englishman, but from a truly American point of view: Brits are so slavishly fond of their kings, that they would never say out loud that George III was barking mad, or that Wilhelm the Conqueror depopulated the whole North of the country.
I never heard before what Cromwell did to Ireland or Richard the Lion Heart did to England.
I actually checked his wildest statements out - they were true.

A light and breezy stroll through British history from 55BC to 1945. O'Farrell has made every attempt to make the information accessible and dispels numerous myths. As for the humor, I agree the author has overdone it. I did find myself saying 'enough with the comic asides, let's get back to the story', but there were times that I laughed out loud, so while not perfect it's quite good. Also, a lot of cultural references will go over the head of non-British readers, myself included.

You have a spare summer and fancy writing a book but can't be bothered with all that creative muse malarky. It's a bit too soon for the autobiography( still working on doing the X-factor and the Big Brother application and frankly not so hot on the sports front) so what do you do? Well you pop along to the local reference library and sort out a stack of What the Roman's did for us, Great Kings and Queens of England, Prime Minsters I have known, and write a comic History of Britain for History refusniks. This is what John O'Farrell attempts to do in An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge). As you failed English know ( for Americans and other ex colonial types, local joke so ignore) when we mention Britain we really mean England except if one of you win an Olympic medal so you still have time to fit in one for Scotland, Wales or Ireland.

The question is, does it work as comedy, history or even comedic history? The gold standard is 1066 and All That and frankly, the book struggles in comparison. Both draw on popular memories of what is history and make it the raw material for humour. The historical factoids of the O'Farrell book do make it ideal for a bathroom read as you can dip in and out as nature calls. But the John O'Farrell humour of Blackadderish quips and asides* can grate unlike1066 and All That.**

Well does it work as History? Er...not really. If you had more interesting things to do at school, it does give you a simple overview of English History. If you paid attention then the lack of accuracy (Read the Terry Deary Horrid History series to see how its done properly) or the one-dimensional nature of the account soon irritates. One particular annoying clanger is the myth that the Anglo-Saxons wiped out the Romano-Celtic language and culture. The 0rigins of the British by Stephen Oppenheimer based on genetic evidence show that the SW and Wales, Southern England and the North had separate and long-standing separate waves of settlement. Meaning that the natives that the Romans met in the south were of Germanic origin and hence why so little Celtic influence in place names and English. I could go about his slighting reference to the King James Bible (an attempt to head off the radical puritans translations), his failure to address the social-religious movements of the English Civil War and their impact and don't get me started on his nonsense of the first World War. Yes, I did pay attention in History and so what if you were more popular in school.

So any redeeming features? It does have several serious asides about the lack of social justice; we the working people rarely get a look in on political and social power until perhaps the English Civil war and then struggled to get universal franchise until 1948(when students having two votes was abolished). But, this was done much better by the classic Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson.

If you do get hold of a copy, pass it on to your teenagers who might at last get a sense what Sir was droning on about. As for you, its raining so get down and write the history that John O'Farrell didn't write. As for you few Americans still here, read about your own forgotten past in A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn.

Remembering that humour is subjective here are other viewpoints:

* Well researched, very funny book, which was a joy as holiday reading. Frequently laugh-out-loud. Highly enjoyable.

** a book full of silly upper-class-twit jokes. (Haw-haw! What will Master think!) .Anyway, for us who are more prosaically born and raised, this book offers no reward other than insight into the childhood of a frivolous (if Oxonian) class of recently and soon to be dead English aristocracy.

Well researched, very funny book which was a joy as holiday reading. Frequently laugh-out-loud. Highly enjoyable.

I found this book highly amusing, as did my brother and sister to whom I sent copies. It's a nice blend of history and entertainment.

It is a nationalistic book completely missing a critical perspective, fully ignorant of basic historical questions and debates, often reporting as certain facts and intepretations that are instead deeply debated. The sarcasm on war events is also disturbing.

Think of that person who can't resist making a clever quip after anything is said. Now, imagine reading a 552 page book written by that person. While Mr. O'Farrell's insight into English history is fascinating, it is completely ruined by his insufferable and constant attempts at humor. To add to the torture, on virtually every page he asks you to refer to footnotes that invariably contain more poorly written and agonizingly unfunny tidbits. Frankly, there are more belly laughs in Churchill's "A History of English Speaking Peoples".