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jimbowen0306 's review for:
George III: The Life and Reign of Britain's Most Misunderstood Monarch
by Andrew Roberts
One of the problems with English history teaching is that it can read a bit like a list of date, and events that happened to famous people. I know that George III is a famous person, so anything that’s written about him has the potential to run into that pitfall, but equally, after biographies by Robert Caro, and Edmund Morris (who are the epitome of context), that shouldn’t stop me from pointing it out.
This book is about George III, the monarch under whose rule, the American colonies where lost. He makes 3 interesting points about George (that after the 7 Years War, there was little point the British trying to charge the Americans for their defence, as all realistic foes were so defeated they wouldn’t return, that the Americans were going to find a reason to leave anyway, because they no longer needed us, and that he didn’t have porphyria). Beyond that, it did feel like a list of dates, and things that happened to him.
It’s also worth noting that the author had the potential to write a more contextual history of the British empire, especially in the last 10 years of George III’s reign, when the mental illness kicked off, and the empire really started cooking on gas in India, but hr was too focused on dates in George III’s life for that’s to happen.
So, overall, it’s thorough, but in a history textbook way, and not all that gripping.
This book is about George III, the monarch under whose rule, the American colonies where lost. He makes 3 interesting points about George (that after the 7 Years War, there was little point the British trying to charge the Americans for their defence, as all realistic foes were so defeated they wouldn’t return, that the Americans were going to find a reason to leave anyway, because they no longer needed us, and that he didn’t have porphyria). Beyond that, it did feel like a list of dates, and things that happened to him.
It’s also worth noting that the author had the potential to write a more contextual history of the British empire, especially in the last 10 years of George III’s reign, when the mental illness kicked off, and the empire really started cooking on gas in India, but hr was too focused on dates in George III’s life for that’s to happen.
So, overall, it’s thorough, but in a history textbook way, and not all that gripping.