Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
England's history retold for the modern age--from Caesar to Brexit via Conquest, Empire, and world wars In nations across the world, political divides seem to loom wider than ever before. Whether in the United States or England, many people are frustrated with the inability of different ideologies, or even different regions of the same country, to find a middle ground and understand each other's viewpoints. It's easy to see this extreme polarization as a modern phenomenon--but looking closely at English history reveals that this nation in the North Atlantic has been deeply divided across 2,000 years (and even before the first humans made its land their home). England's historical and present dominance over the other countries in the UK means this split reverberates across the entire kingdom, with repercussions for all its interactions on the global stage.
Every moment of England's past is colored by its geographical and cultural split into two regions--north and south. As the country dealt with outside pressures like colonizing Romans, Germanic settlers, and Danish and Norman invaders over the centuries, it also faced a battle within between the more privileged southern elite and the northern people who resisted southern domination. The Shortest History of England links these earlier struggles to England's uncertain present and future, with fascinating aspects of the nation's history like these playing starring roles:
- Constant political tug-of-war between the crown and Parliament, with a beheaded king and the Magna Carta at the center
- Linguistic conflict between the haves and the have-nots as French became the language of the elite, leading to the Frenchified Northern way of speaking "correct" English still dominating today
- Wars, wars, and more wars--from the Hundred Years' War between England and France, to the Wars of the Roses between northern and southern England, to World War I and II
- Religious battles as the Reformation split the country into Catholic versus Protestant
- The rise of an empire stretching across America, India, Africa, and Australia--and its fall
- Populism's modern ascendancy with the help of Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Farage as well as the UKIP party
- And the empire's decline from the inside, with Ireland's breaking away from the UK, the UK's breaking away from the EU, and Scottish independence
All of these events and more are conveyed in author James Hawes's succinct, incisive voice, accompanied by over 150 maps, images, and diagrams. Understanding England's history is key to understanding the division that drives its modern events--and the destinies of many other countries in the Western world--and there is no better way to learn than this compact yet powerful narrative.
Synopsis
A fast-paced tour of 2,000 years of English history, tracing its secret north-south divide and notorious class system James Hawes reveals an England repeatedly invaded and constantly reinvented, yet always fractured by its very own Mason-Dixon line--plus a unique, thousand-year-old cultural divide between ordinary people and the elites. Here, you'll see:
- centuries of conflict between Crown and Parliament, starring the Magna Carta
- why the American colonists of 1776 believed that they were the true Anglo-Saxons
- how the British Empire was undermined from within
- why Winston Churchill said the UK could only be saved by splitting up England itself
The Shortest History of England brings all this and more to prescient life with 150 maps and pictures.
Synopsis
The newest in The Shortest History Series brings you a fast-paced tour of 2,000 years of English history, tracing its secret north-south divide and notorious class system James Hawes reveals an England repeatedly invaded and constantly reinvented, yet always fractured by its very own Mason-Dixon line--plus a unique, thousand-year-old cultural divide between ordinary people and the elites. Here, you'll see:
- centuries of conflict between Crown and Parliament, starring the Magna Carta
- why the American colonists of 1776 believed that they were the true Anglo-Saxons
- how the British Empire was undermined from within
- why Winston Churchill said the UK could only be saved by splitting up England itself
The Shortest History of England brings all this and more to prescient life with 150 maps and pictures.
Synopsis
The newest in The Shortest History Series brings you a fast-paced tour of 2,000 years of English history, tracing its secret north-south divide and entrenched class system England--begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, star of beloved period dramas, and home of the House of Windsor--is not quite the stalwart island fortress that many of us imagine. Riven by an ancient fault line that predates even the Romans, its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbors; and for the past millennia, it has harbored a class system like nowhere else on Earth.
This bracing tour of the most powerful country in the United Kingdom reveals an England repeatedly invaded and constantly reinvented--yet always fractured by its very own Mason-Dixon Line. It carries us swiftly through centuries of conflict between Crown and Parliament (starring the Magna Carta), America's War of Independence, the rise and fall of empire, two World Wars, and England's break from the EU. We discover:
- why the American colonists of 1776 believed that they were the true Anglo-Saxons
- how the British Empire was undermined from within
- why Winston Churchill said the UK could only be saved by splitting up England itself
- and how populism spawned Brexit and its "new elite."
The Shortest History of England brings all this and more to prescient life--offering the most direct, compelling route to understanding the country behind today's headlines.
Synopsis
How the most powerful country in the UK was forged by invasion and conquest, and is fractured by its north-south divide. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting fast-paced read. England--begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, star of beloved period dramas, and home of the House of Windsor--is not quite the stalwart island fortress that many of us imagine. Riven by an ancient fault line that predates even the Romans, its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbors; and for the past millennia, it has harbored a class system like nowhere else on Earth.
This bracing tour of the most powerful country in the United Kingdom reveals an England repeatedly invaded and constantly reinvented--yet always fractured by its very own Mason-Dixon Line. It carries us swiftly through centuries of conflict between Crown and Parliament (starring the Magna Carta), America's War of Independence, the rise and fall of empire, two World Wars, and England's break from the EU. We discover:
- why the American colonists of 1776 believed that they were the true Anglo-Saxons
- how the British Empire was undermined from within
- why Winston Churchill said the UK could only be saved by splitting up England itself
- and how populism spawned Brexit and its "new elite."
The Shortest History of England brings all this and more to prescient life--offering the most direct, compelling route to understanding the country behind today's headlines.
Synopsis
England--begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, star of beloved period dramas, and home of the House of Windsor--is not quite the stalwart island fortress that many of us imagine. Riven by an ancient fault line that predates even the Romans, its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbors; and for the past millennia, it has harbored a class system like nowhere else on Earth.
This bracing tour of the most powerful country in the United Kingdom reveals an England repeatedly invaded and constantly reinvented--yet always fractured by its very own Mason-Dixon Line. It carries us swiftly through centuries of conflict between Crown and Parliament (starring the Magna Carta), America's War of Independence, the rise and fall of empire, two World Wars, and England's break from the EU. We discover:
- why the American colonists of 1776 believed that they were the true Anglo-Saxons
- how the British Empire was undermined from within
- why Winston Churchill said the UK could only be saved by splitting up England itself
- and how populism spawned Brexit and its "new elite."
The Shortest History of England brings all this and more to prescient life--offering the most direct, compelling route to understanding the country behind today's headlines.