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    The English and Their History
    The English and Their History
    The English and Their History
    Audiobook43 hours

    The English and Their History

    Written by Robert Tombs

    Narrated by James Langton

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Robert Tombs's momentous The English and Their History is both a startlingly fresh and a uniquely inclusive account of the people who have a claim to be the oldest nation in the world. The English first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognizable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions can be traced back to the earliest years of their history.

    The English have come a long way from those first precarious days of invasion and conquest, with many spectacular changes of fortune. Their political, economic, and cultural contacts have left traces for good and ill across the world. This book describes their history and its meanings, from their beginnings in the monasteries of Northumbria and the wetlands of Wessex to the cosmopolitan energy of today's England. Tombs draws out important threads running through the story, including participatory government, language, law, religion, the land and the sea, and ever-changing relations with other peoples.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 28, 2016
    ISBN9781515974192
    The English and Their History

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    Reviews for The English and Their History

    4.5/5

    71 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A comprehensive account of English History from earliest times to almost present day. Very enjoyable to listen to and contemplate.
    • 4/5
      As good as the blurbs say - but not a quick read
    • 5/5
      This is a 2015 book which covers the whole history of England right up through 2014. The author is a history profsssor at the University of Cambridge and so he definitely shows a pro-English bias when dealing with events in which the USA and England had differences (e.g., he downplays the events which caused the American Revolution and says the British negotiator of the Treaty of Paris which gave the colonies independence was a pushover for the colonies' negotiators. But I found the account unfailingly absorbing reading even though I have read a lot of Englixh history. This is certainly one of the best books I have read this year and there is scarcely a dull page in its 1002 pages.
    • 5/5
      Professor Tombs writes a very decent prose and the main reason for deducting a half star is his pro British bias. For example, he writes that the Irish famine was nobody's fault, even though the Whigs were elected and totally screwed up the relief effort. He also praises the English or the British empire for ending slavery. In another error, he states that the Indian famine was nobody's fault even though he cites two Brits as being totally at fault.In terms of WWI, he thinks that all of the poets got things wrong and that we should honor the idiots who served and got shot "because they believed in their cause and they went voluntarily". He does like Winston Churchill, especially for his rallying of the country during WWll. The book is insanely long at almost 900 pages, and it is a heavy read. Overall, though, his take on Thatcher and Blair is good and this is a worthwhile effort.