Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: A History of Britain : At the Edge of the World, 3500 B.C.-1603 A.D by Schama Simon ISBN: 0-7868-6675-6 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71 (34 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Coffee-table History
Comment: Presumably, there were high expectations for this, coming from a historian of Schama's stature, but I have to agree with many of the reader comments that the book is a vast disappointment. He starts out badly, with the irrelevance (at least to this book, as it covers "Britain" only to 1600) of two pages on the coronation of Elizabeth II. It then proceeds to a chronicle of the monarchy and nobility, with hardly a glance at anyone or anything below them. Schama professes early on (between the coronation and Churchill's funeral apparently) to have been an avid reader of Fernand Braudel, E. P. Thompson, Marc Bloch, and Christopher Hill, but if this work is any indication he has taken nothing from them of their disdain for the "great man" theory of history. It's hard to figure out his intended audience here--certainly not professional historians or students, and even those in need of a nice coffee-table tome will not be very impressed by this somewhat thin volume. Minus the profuse illustrations, there are barely 300 pages of text to cover "Britain" (actually England) to 1600. The book is a TV tie-in with the BBC series (shown here on the History Channel) and it bears all the marks of a commercially-driven product. Schama does write well, but it is clear he is not a specialist in English history. I would think Davies' recent "The Isles" or the older Oxford History of Britain would be a better chioce for most readers.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fun History of Britain
Comment: If history bores you and you enjoy reading, I think Schama intends more to educate through entertainment than to simply educate. This is not the typical history book and is well-written. There are plenty of funny, interesting, and most often brief acounts given that help one understand and provide laughs at times. Schama is not a British historian and has lived in the US for maybe the last 25 years. But on account of being British, a Columbia professor, and--based on reading his three volumes on British history--an excellent writer, he has been encouraged and has writen about British history.
After reading this book I got a good feel of the life at the time, and I think that is largely due to the historical records Schama uses that show the emotions and logic of the times. The beautiful pictures also help in fostering a sense of what Britain is and was like. This book is a very easy and enjoyable read read, and I think this book is perfect for the reader unfamiliar with British history but does not take to history per se.
Rating: 4
Summary: Racing with rulers
Comment: This delightful romp through Britain's history from Roman to Elizabethan times is enchanting reading. Although mis-titled, since Schama dispenses with two millennia in but a few pages, his engrossing prose keeps your attention fixed through every page. He hasn't, of course, given us a "history of Britain" in any but a limited sense. The theme is the governance of a nation with expanding and contracting borders, rulers and those aspiring to rule drifting on and off the stage, and the politics of ruling such a land. The "life" of the country - the tillers, shepherds, artificers, fishermen, are pushed offstage unseen. Not intended as an academic study, it's an entertaining overview.
Schama's prose is often evocative. A prime example is his account of the preliminaries leading to the invasion at Hastings and the encounter itself. We witness, almost as participants, the victories and waning of Edward, king of Wessex. His successor, Harold, crosses the reach of England to defeat invading Vikings prior to the rush south to counter William of Normandy. At the battle site, Schama brings you onto the battle site, viewing the impending clash first from the English side, then from the Norman. You sweat and reflect, facing determined enemies prior to the onslaught. He moves you with the troops, thrusting, dodging, suffering as the battle rages. By the time you reach the pages of William's consolidating his victory, you are breathless. Schama is rarely detached from events throughout this book, and he has you at his side at every significant circumstance.
His discussions of the governance of Britain make compelling reading. Just as we thought the Domesday Book was little more than a tool of Norman oppression, Schama depicts William as "the first database king" bent on achieving equitable enforcement of justice. In later years, Henry II would continue that tradition, ruling medieval Europe's greatest empire. Without delving into tedious detail, Schama makes clear that ruling Britain at any level is a dynamic process. Although the successive monarchs may appear a continuum separated by some violent events, he demonstrates that whoever sat on the throne must perform the task of ruling. The methods may vary, sometimes harshly imposed, but tradition repeatedly impairs the march of change. Anyone failing to understand this will fail to understand Britain.
 |
Title: A History of Britain, Volume II: The Wars of the British 1603-1776 by Simon Schama ISBN: 0786867523 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
 |
Title: A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2000 by Simon Schama ISBN: 0786868996 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
 |
Title:A History of Britain - The Complete Collection ASIN: B00006RCKI Publisher: A & E Home Video Pub. Date: 26 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $99.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $89.96 |
 |
Title: Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama ISBN: 0679726101 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: March, 1990 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
 |
Title: A History of Britain, Volume 3: The Fate of Empire 1776-2002 by Simon Schama, Timothy West ISBN: 1559277661 Publisher: Audio Renaissance Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $32.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
