A History of Britain (HoB) is exactly what it says on the tin. But whoever said that was a bad thing.
Simon Schama is a British art historian who also specialises in Dutch and French history. So just why is he writing a trilogy of history books on Britain? (There's a debate whether he wrote the books and then the BBC produced a show on them or the other way around). But a few minutes into the book, you know exactly why he was roped in.
HoB is the kind of witty, exciting, yet extremely good history I always love reading. Although the time period tackled in this book is large, the book is so free wheeling and never with a dull moment.
Schama quickly zips through Celtic and Romano-Britain and although he's come under some criticism that he hasn't given these time periods their due, he brushes it under the carpet telling that these periods don't really deal with "Britain" but rather a hotch-potch of various English, Welsh and Scot/Pict states.
Saxon, Viking and Noman invasions all spice things up a bit and Schama spends quite a bit of time discussing what the people of that time may have thought of all the axe-wielding raiders/colonizers on the loose. Overwhelmingly, there is a feeling that Schama has taken on this task to re-look at how the history of Britain has been written until now by British historians with a Marxist bent of mind (who were themselves critically re-looking at 'Whig' history). The Vikings are a case in point. While early Marxist historians have somewhat brushed it aside telling Viking invasions didn't really change Britain all that much for the common man, Schama points out that no, the Viking invasions had far-reaching effects on people across all social and economic strata.
1066 is another of those that Schama spends considerable time with. It really was an "important date" in the history of Britain. Beckett and Henry II's Common Law are also given their due.
Complicated bits which involve entangled family trees and bitter dynastic feuding, such as the Anarchy and the War of the Roses, are just superficially touched. Although this was initially annoying since I wanted to know about these periods, I realized it's impossible to do justice to them without spending a great deal of time, plus here genuinely a case can be made that the political feuding didn't much affect the common people on the ground.
Predictably, a lot of time is spent on the Magna Carta and what it meant. And while it is well known that a bunch of Barons blackmailed the King into signing it, Schama argues that it had far reaching effects both in 1215 and in later British history. The English-Scot wars of Edward I are also covered in detail.
But there were some major grouses of mine here. Schama completely skips Richard the Lionheart's Crusade and campaigns in Europe and even the Hundred Year's War between the English and the French. Surely the French Wars at least merited some attention as it probably had an impact on both countries nascent nationalism. I can only hope the later volumes look outside of the British Isles, as I can't quite think of later British history without a Calcutta or a Boston.
The rise of the Tudors, the Reformation, the "Henries" and Elizabeth are very well discussed. I felt this was the strongest quarter of the book wonderfully merging cultural and political history. Read the book if you've to for this alone.
Overall a History of Britain is a page-turningly good history, and I think it achieves this by not compromising on any scholarly rigour. Erudite, witty and yet Schama never misses great insights that leave you amazed.
I listened to this as an audio book, and after listening to so many American accents it was a welcome change to listen to a British one. The narrator Steven Thorne does a wonderful job, and it always brought a smile on my face when he switched to Scot, Irish or cockney accents. I can't wait to dive into Volume 2.
Read from: 08-06-2014 to 26-06-2014; audiobook.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
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