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roseybot's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this up, in part, because I've never actually learned any English history from the perspective of England. A strange fact given I was born there, and have very British parents. Having a plethora of information about American history (since I was raised in the US, near where the 'shot heard round the world' rang out), I decided to see what I could pick up from an overview of the homeland.
Ultimately, this book was way more patriotic than I like in my history. There was a rosy tint to everything that Tombs described, especially in the later years, and a certain amount of brushing the violent and terrible things that England did in the name of empire (hello rest of the world that we harmed by taking over and pretending moral superiority to). I will say, I usually only read about the bad things that imperialism did, and there's a certain amount of seeing the English rubbing their hands together in glee at the money to be made that comes out, so it was interesting to see a less harsh take on it.
It also made me pretty suspicious of Tombs, which I am glad for cause he seemed to really like Thatcher. Look -- I'll admit it, I don't know much about her -- but even I know she was terrible. So I was left with an odd feeling of 'this guy is kind of a Tory, and therefore we fundamentally disagree on a lot of things".
Still, this was a good primer for information on the place I was born, and I am glad I read it. Tombs was careful about notation and managed to remain fairly impartial for the first half or so of the book. And even beyond that, when he was partial, he backed it up with evidence. I can quibble about the evidence (numbers and stats don't necessarily mean what he thinks they do), but at least he researched to arrive at his conclusions.
Ultimately, this book was way more patriotic than I like in my history. There was a rosy tint to everything that Tombs described, especially in the later years, and a certain amount of brushing the violent and terrible things that England did in the name of empire (hello rest of the world that we harmed by taking over and pretending moral superiority to). I will say, I usually only read about the bad things that imperialism did, and there's a certain amount of seeing the English rubbing their hands together in glee at the money to be made that comes out, so it was interesting to see a less harsh take on it.
It also made me pretty suspicious of Tombs, which I am glad for cause he seemed to really like Thatcher. Look -- I'll admit it, I don't know much about her -- but even I know she was terrible. So I was left with an odd feeling of 'this guy is kind of a Tory, and therefore we fundamentally disagree on a lot of things".
Still, this was a good primer for information on the place I was born, and I am glad I read it. Tombs was careful about notation and managed to remain fairly impartial for the first half or so of the book. And even beyond that, when he was partial, he backed it up with evidence. I can quibble about the evidence (numbers and stats don't necessarily mean what he thinks they do), but at least he researched to arrive at his conclusions.
nelsta's review against another edition
5.0
This book occupies a coveted spot on my bookshelf: it is one of four books I have ever reread, and the only book I’ve ever read three times. It was well worth the second and third listens.
The English and their History might be my favorite societal and political history I’ve ever read. It is a perfect exploration of its subject and I find myself comparing all other histories to it. It starts with prehistoric Albion and chronicles the history of the English people all the way up to 2014. Yet despite being a massive undertaking, Robert Tombs manages to make each chapter just as interesting as the one before it. I was equally enthralled by his recounting of medieval England as I was by his summary of the UK during World War II.
The audiobook is fantastic. The narrator was a perfect choice. I found that I would look for opportunities to listen to this book because of how good the story and narration are.
I only wish this book had been published in 2020 to take advantage of Brexit and its political fallout.
I have now read this book three times. I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did the first two times. It is a masterpiece, in my opinion. A stunningly large portion of the book is dedicated to the period between 1800 and 1918, but it’s an obvious emphasis given just how much England changed the world in that century.
One of my favorite things about this book is Tombs’ even hand. He is obviously English and supports England, but he provides criticism and compliments evenly and when deserved. This book isn’t a puff piece. I admire his ability to call the shots evenly and without letting bias carry him away.
The English and their History might be my favorite societal and political history I’ve ever read. It is a perfect exploration of its subject and I find myself comparing all other histories to it. It starts with prehistoric Albion and chronicles the history of the English people all the way up to 2014. Yet despite being a massive undertaking, Robert Tombs manages to make each chapter just as interesting as the one before it. I was equally enthralled by his recounting of medieval England as I was by his summary of the UK during World War II.
The audiobook is fantastic. The narrator was a perfect choice. I found that I would look for opportunities to listen to this book because of how good the story and narration are.
I only wish this book had been published in 2020 to take advantage of Brexit and its political fallout.
I have now read this book three times. I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did the first two times. It is a masterpiece, in my opinion. A stunningly large portion of the book is dedicated to the period between 1800 and 1918, but it’s an obvious emphasis given just how much England changed the world in that century.
One of my favorite things about this book is Tombs’ even hand. He is obviously English and supports England, but he provides criticism and compliments evenly and when deserved. This book isn’t a puff piece. I admire his ability to call the shots evenly and without letting bias carry him away.
mdross1's review against another edition
4.0
Holy moley that was long. Though of course you can't be surprised given the scope of the subject matter.
Overall it was pretty good, but paced like a game of Civilization (the section on The Blitz probably lasted longer than entire earlier decades). As other reviewers have said the book was largely organized chronologically though with occasional thematic chapters that would take a wider view. Of these, the last one was unfortunately the least interesting to me, and so the book ended on a bit of a low point personally.
Overall it was pretty good, but paced like a game of Civilization (the section on The Blitz probably lasted longer than entire earlier decades). As other reviewers have said the book was largely organized chronologically though with occasional thematic chapters that would take a wider view. Of these, the last one was unfortunately the least interesting to me, and so the book ended on a bit of a low point personally.
leilatre's review
4.0
More like 3.5 stars. This exhaustive survey of English history is well-written and (mostly) interesting. I learned a good amount about the middle ages in the British Isles and also got more perspective on English imperialism and the politics behind the divisions of the British Isles and Ireland. I didn't always follow in audiobook form exactly how the information was broken down into chapters, which led me to feel more than once like he was covering the same material in multiple chapters. This might make more sense in the written book. Sometimes the content was quite dry, but that tends to happen with histories of this magnitude. I did sense some bias in the authors coverage of more recent eras, but it didn't really bother me. Overall, a worthwhile listen!
eleanorwantstoreadwithfriends's review against another edition
I'm marking this as read because I've spent a lot of time listening to it, but the longer it went on, the more the author just made random guesses: like how the average person living in feudalist England had just as good a quality of life as someone living in the same place in the modern era, which is a BIZARRE thing to throw out there. Personally I like the existence of things like dentists and the ability to vote, so DNF?
harrysmallwood's review against another edition
3.0
Before the authors modern political bias becomes apparent, this is a definite 5 star. Unfortunately it creeps in from about half way through the book (which gets us to around 1800, arguably poor pacing in my opinion)