A History of Modern Britain

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Totally absorbing - Rated
Brilliant. Extremely well written with sentences that you want to re-read to relish the taste of them in your mouth. Well reserached and with interesting anecdotes as well as facts. Puts the late 20th century (and the first years of the 21st) into its historical context. I found it un-put-downable.

Interesting and entertaining if rather depressing... - Rated
I'm not much of a reader but has always had an interested in history and so this seemed to fit the bill for a book on modern history that would be readable and informative. And so it was. I was amazed by how little I know of Britain's recent history but it was interesting when I got to the 70s to note names appearing that I could remember being mentioned when I was a boy, but also a historical narrative of the 80s when I lived though it!

My only disappointment was the seemingly never-ending series of failures and disasters that seem to follow the historical journey of Britain - hardly a fault of the book but depressing all the same when it seemed there was hardly ever a political decision taken that didn't cost the country millions or was a missed opportunity to improve the lives of ordinary Britons. You're left wondering what sort of country we would be living in now if occasionally some politicians got it right for a change!

Marr-velous history - Rated
Andrew Marr is a knowledable, yet easy to understand man. So is this book. Its strength is that it is accesible to the average reader and gives a broad sweep of modern British history with some fascinating behind the scenes insights. Its weakness is that there are glaring gaps of significant national events that have no mention. It also gets bogged down sometimes in economics. For a good, general historical read however, Marr-velous.

Reasonable 'journalistic' overview, but how many typos!?! - Rated
This is an enjoyable, easy-to-read overview of postwar Britain but Marr does seem to get away with some shockingly wooly points that would have caused my history teacher's red pen to run out of ink!

The first chapters, about Britain's politics immediately after WW2 up to the 60s I thought were excellent, but as soon as he gets into economics, pop music etc it does become pretty sloppy tabloid generalisation. As a typical upper-middle class BBC journo and well-known chum of Gordon Brown he's also painfully PC, especially jarring in a history book, re. the unqualified good of multiculturalism, the NHS and welfare state, the liberal reforms of the 60s onwards etc. There's also a very sniffy attitude to the developments of business, the UK economy and consumerism.

Also it would be really useful in a future edition to occasionally include in the margins what year he's talking about. In an overview, thematic history it's very hard to follow exactly when specific things are happening, and Marr rarely gives any dates in his text.

Then there's the typos - I'm not that much of a pedant but I was seeing a glaring one every few pages! In a history book from a respected BBC journo this is really poor, and does make you wonder if some of the facts and quotes are in fact accurate, given that there was so little scrutiny in the editing process.

Thought provoking - Rated
Once I picked this book up I could not put it down.Memories came spinning back to this fifties boy.I came up through most of these times and so I could relate to this modern history.Andrew Marr has handled the political side very well in this book and has managed to keep his personal views from overspilling into factual happeninings.One thing it did for me was to show that our country is run by legalised liars with huge built in egos , no matter what party or Prime Minister has run Britain.How many times has Britain survived bankruptcy from the failings of all these politicians who treat their position as a career and right with greed being the reward? Why do we have to wait until something is history before we see the true failings and stories.Read this book and see how a great country has survived being led by so many leaders who only care for themselves and their party.A very thought provoking book which should be read by all.