416
pages, Hyperion, ISBN-13: 978-0563384977
Simon
Schama’s A History of Britain trilogy
was first published in 2000 to accompany his television miniseries of the same
name and confirmed his status as one of the world’s leading popular historians,
not only thanks to his expansive knowledge of history, but also to his ability
to succinctly, unerringly and unpretentiously pinpoint the psychological
motivations of his characters…did I just say his “characters”? Why, yes I did,
for there is something almost novelistic about Schama’s approach to history:
his writing has a certain stylistic flair that also demonstrates a willingness
to understand individuals, so that all of those Anglo-Saxon figures whose names
sound remarkably similar and all of those kings with numerous sons all named
after themselves take on distinct identities. He mixes academic scrutiny with
the common touch: I ask you, who else would sum up Thomas à Becket’s
contrariness thus: “Becket was a cockney, a street-fighter and as tough as old
boots under the cowl”? This first volume takes us through to the end of the
Tudor dynasty and discusses all the Kings, Queens, and other famous historical figures
that you would expect, and its simple writing style makes it a very accessible
book and is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in British
history.
Schama’s
thesis is that history is made by change, not by continuity: it is those
moments of radical alteration that really show us who we are. Naturally, a thesis
such as this is inevitably dependent on strong, determined individuals: Thomas
à Becket’s intransigence in the face of Henry II altering the relationship between
Church and State forever, or Henry VIII’s obsession over producing a male heir breaking
England with Rome. But there are also events, not individuals that change the
course of things, as Schama explains: the Black Death wiped out so many people
that the existent feudal system was destroyed, effecting (or helping to effect)
a great rural transformation. The book is unavoidably chronological in the way
it presents the stories, but Schama does attempt to group events together in
themes. This comes across as a bit of a gimmick, because each chapter/theme is
conveniently about the same number of pages and the theme is only really
mentioned at the beginning and end of each chapter.
For
the casual history reader most of the key points are covered, but there are
some fairly glaring omissions: the Crusades get little attention – I know, I
know, they didn’t take place in Britain, but they did have a significant impact
on life in England at the time (actually, a number of foreign wars get minimal
treatment); if you didn’t know anything about the Wars of the Roses before reading
this book then you won’t after, either, for the term is only used once and the
events are barely discussed; Richard III, one of England’s most notorious
Kings, is given one – ONE! – sentence, and as I believe that Shakespeare’s
image of Richard III is inaccurate, I was really hoping for some discussion of
this, but none was forthcoming; and while I appreciate that “Britain” didn’t
exist in the period under discussion, I still feel that Scotland, Wales, and
Ireland are given short shrift here, as Wales and Scotland are discussed only when
they were involved in fighting with England.
I
try to be sympathetic to anyone attempting to write a complete history of anything
because it is not possible to cover it all; however, Schama does set himself up
for this criticism a bit, by only using 400 pages to discuss everything up to
1603. Still, this is an exciting, intensely seductive presentation of history,
and Schama is clever enough not to dismiss an appeal to the head as well as the
heart, for all his focus on personality: a winning combination.
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