The Isles

When did British history begin, and where will it all end? These controversial issues are tackled head-on in Norman Davies' polemical and persuasive survey of the four countries that in modern times have become known as the British Isles. Covering 10 millennia in just over a thousand pages, from "Cheddar Man" to New Labour, Davies shows how relatively recent was the formation of the English state--no earlier than Tudor times--and shows too how a sense of Britishness only emerged with the coming of empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. A historian of Poland and the author of an acclaimed history of Europe, Davies is especially sensitive to the complex mixing and merging of tribes and races, languages and traditions, conquerors and colonised which has gone on throughout British history and which in many ways makes "our island story" much more like that of the rest of Europe than we usually think. Many myths of the English are dispelled in this book and many historians are taken to task for their blinkered Anglo-centrism. But the book ends on an upbeat note, with Davies welcoming Britain's return to the heart of Europe at the dawn of the new millennium. --Miles Taylor

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Doesn't live up to previous works - Rated
I bought this book after reading Norman Davies' Europe. UNfortunately, most of this book feels like an attempt to cash in on the success of the far superior Europe. Much like his previous work, in which he stresses the need to include the often forgotten states and peoples, Davies talks at length about the importance of Scotland/Wales/Ireland and criticises all who have gone before him for not paying them much attention...and yet then goes on to recount a history of the Isles that seems to revolve solely around a list of "English" kings.

Yes there still are references to other parts of the isles - and i did like his treatment of early history, but he certainly does not present the wide-ranging history that he promises.

A lot of this book is taken up with discussion of various topics, without actually detailing the events themselves very clearly. I hoped to gain a clear overview of events, but for many parts, particularly with English history, this knowledge is assumed, and Davies refers to events in passing, without actually explaining them.

Nearer the end,in my edition anyway, there are several typos, which is disappointing, as it does make me doubt how well the book was checked for factual accuracy.

There are plenty of maps, but unless you are very familiar with placenames, you might still need an atlas to place certain events, as Davies will occassionally mention a rather obscure town, without even giving a general indication of its location within a country.

I don't want to sound completely negative - most of my disappointment comes because I was expecting great things. I did learn a lot, certain parts were very enjoyable, but my overriding impression was of reading an early draft of a book rather than the finished version

Critically well received but a disappointment - Rated
Given the reviews of this book on Amazon and elsewhere I expected something special but was hugely disappointed. The book is impeneterable and does not live up to its billing. Take the first chapter. The author refuses to refer to Scotland, England etc. but uses his own names for the various regions "The Misty Country", "The Cliff Country" etc. However worthy his motives, this leaves the reader having to constantly flick back and forth between the text and the appendix in order to follow what is being said. I suspect that most readers (at least of popular history books) are interested in the history of the place not an academic exercise in reconstructing how we think about our history. In fairness to the author, I got as far as page 600 before stalling a couple of years ago and this review is based primarily on the earlier chapters after I decided to give it a second chance. It may be somewhat out of date but for pure pleasure, can you do any better than Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples?

Balanced in view, but not in detail - Rated
This great book by Norman Davies is a valuable overview of the history of the isles but, like his European history before it, should be used as a spring board to inspire research into specific areas and times.

The book is reasonably balanced and evenly critical on it's approach to Irish, Welsh, Scottish and English history, and definitely mentions each "country" in every chapter. (His discussion of "country" in the context of the UK and Ireland, in particular, is very interesting).

However the amount of space devoted to England unbalances the level of detail each country gets. For instance, the English Civil War might warrant 20 pages, whereas the whole of 17th century Ireland might get 2 pages. Is that fair? Perhaps the impact of the English civil war is greater (and better documented) but it does sometimes seems to reinforce the impression that the history of Scotland and Ireland (to a lesser extent Wales) is of secondary importance.

A good non-Anglocentric history of the British Isles - Rated
Davies writes a superb book which is a wonderful antedote to all the horrendous old anglocentric histories I remember reading years ago. In my opinion Davies correctly emphasises the importance of all the constituent parts of the Isles. The book begins by examining the prehistory of the isles and I note that one other reviewer states that he felt this chapter to be a waste of time, concentrating on the minutae of an obscure academic argument. The opening chapter and its discussion readily puts over the point that when talking about place names etc., we cannot remove ourselves from a preconception of history and inevitably produces bias. If that reviewer had persisted with the book I suspect he/she may have got the point by the end.

The book then enters a more traditional history beginning with the Celtic domination of the Isles and proceeding through Roman, Saxon, Norse, Norman and Plantagenet eras of (attempted) domination. With each period there is a three part chapter consisting of a "scene setting" episode, the meat of the history and then a review of conceptions, misconceptions and previous views on those eras. The first part of the chapters are always excellent, the second as good but the third parts tend to be inconsistent, some good some rather tedious. Overall though the layout is good and the appendices at the end are wonderful, having the lyrics and music to various "nationalistic" tunes is a wonderfully original idea.

Criticisms of the book are minor in comparison to its overall impact, but here goes. There appeared to me numerous typos in the book ranging from mis-spelling to factual inaccuracies. Whilst this can be forgiven, they did seem to get more frequent towards the end as if the proofreader had gone to sleep. There were inaccuracies and omissions in some of the genealogies notably the suggestion that James II and VII was the son of Charles II, that the old pretender was Charles and many others. The other criticism is that I would have preferred to see more on the more modern history of the non-English parts of the Isles (a large part of the tradition of South Wales for example depends on its mild rebelliousness, eg. Chartist rebellion (Chartism got one sentence), Rebecca riots (never mentioned) and the rise of the unions. These aspects of modern history are far more resonant to the people of South Wales than the musings of early 20th century Welsh language poets important as the language issue is. The history of the struggle to free Ireland is also much too brief.

Overall though I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in afair history of the Isles.

A great and balanced history. - Rated
Finally, a balanced history of our islands, one that isn't written from a skewed, hopelessly anglo-centric viewpoint. Should be compulsory reading in schools throughout the United Kingdom!