Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History
A sparkling anecdotal account with the pace of an epic, about the men and women who created turning points in history. Rebecca Fraser's dramatic portrayal of the scientists, statesmen, explorers, soldiers, traders, and artists who forged Britain's national institutions is the perfect introduction to British history.
Just as much as kings and queens, battles and empire, Brit...more
Just as much as kings and queens, battles and empire, Brit...more
Paperback, 848 pages
Published
November 17th 2006
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published 2005)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
448)
This book is certainly not an easy or short read. With the ancient history and culture of Britain, the story is vast and rich. However, because of this fact, the reader must be attentive to the many, often complicated details of the past. For this reason, I felt myself losing the ability to attend to those details on a prolonged basis. At times, I felt I was reading a text book from a history course in college. Perhaps the title is misleading. In placing the word "Story" in the title, it led me...more
This is a good introduction to British history that ends around 2002. The narrative form allows for easy reading of its 800+ pages. Many historical events are presented in a dramatic fashion, but the book many times appears to ignore different viewpoints or disputed facts for the sake of clarity or narrative flow (I found this out by exploring some events further online - I am no scholar of British history).
Unless you have a much a better memory than I do, it is difficult to remember the detail...more
Unless you have a much a better memory than I do, it is difficult to remember the detail...more
To my great surprise, I simply cannot put this book down. It's an amazing page-turner. Fraser does a superb job of picking the juiciest and most interesting personal stories while also showing the broad arc of British history and the gradual changes in the societies of the various constituent states.
For an American who had zero education in British history, this is an excellent place to start. In order to understand our culture, legal system, and national history, one must understand the nation...more
For an American who had zero education in British history, this is an excellent place to start. In order to understand our culture, legal system, and national history, one must understand the nation...more
Rebecca Fraser’s history of Britain encapsulates 2000 years in a surprisingly easy to devour 800 pages. Writing this book with her three young daughters in mind, Fraser in sought after an “easy framework . . . to guide the average person through the confusing shoals of disputed facts, to give a broad-brush picture of the past to those not in the van of historical research,” and she has undoubtedly accomplished that in her uniformly engaging, salient and well-paced narrative. I would recommend th...more
This is a very good book. Fraser has a difficult task, covering the history of Britain from the Roman invasion to 2003. She passes with flying colors. This book gives you an excellent overview of British history. You will learn who mattered, what mattered, and why. You will gain an understanding of the British, particularly English, psyche. This book does a good job explaining the evolution of Britain over the years and the various influences on this important nation. It does not cover everythin...more
A sparkling anecdotal account with the pace of an epic, about the men and women who created turning points in history. Rebecca Fraser's dramatic portrayal of the scientists, statesmen, explorers, soldiers, traders, and artists who forged Britain's national institutions is the perfect introduction to British history.
Just as much as kings and queens, battles and empire, Britain's great themes have been the liberty of the individual, the rule of law, and the parliamentary democracy invented to prot...more
Just as much as kings and queens, battles and empire, Britain's great themes have been the liberty of the individual, the rule of law, and the parliamentary democracy invented to prot...more
If someone is looking for a decent introduction to British history in a single volume, I might recommend this book. Often times the book tends to follow a Wikipedia version of history. Events are connected, but don't seem to blend into a well thought out historical narrative. Instead, you get the highlights and that is it. The intricacies of parliamentary democracy are also difficult to follow as the different parties vie for control of Parliament. Although the title indicates that it is a histo...more
I really liked this overall. It's a sweeping narrative of the last two millennia of British history, from Boudicca to Blair, and it's written with crisp preciseness and a dash of dry wit. It does not delve as deep as one might hope, but given the sheer scale of the book, that is understandable. However, I did feel that cultural achievements were barely touched on and deserved greater play. And I disagreed with some of her assessments of the Margaret Thatcher era. Still, it was an excellent read...more
For anyone with an interest in British history - this book is a must. It is not one of your dry and uninteresting repetitions of dates etc.
Rebecca Fraser's ability to draw you into such an extensive period of history and have the ability to relate the events, with such readable prose is remarkable. Her description of events although brief in some aspects, is thorough and inspires this reader to seek further reading on numerous subjects, periods and characters that are found to be of interest. I...more
Rebecca Fraser's ability to draw you into such an extensive period of history and have the ability to relate the events, with such readable prose is remarkable. Her description of events although brief in some aspects, is thorough and inspires this reader to seek further reading on numerous subjects, periods and characters that are found to be of interest. I...more
Another Fraser to read!! This is the daughter of the great, Antonia Fraser!! I enjoyed this thoroughly and will continue to use it as a reference book. I have actually already looked back over the Roman history again to get a better understanding. Straightforward and concise. Great read!
Dec 06, 2010
David Melbie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
History buffs
Recommended to David by:
Picked myself
Very good. Reads like a novel. . . a 'narrative,' as it were.
Understanding British history is important for understanding world history, that's for sure. This book is a good place to start. --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.
Understanding British history is important for understanding world history, that's for sure. This book is a good place to start. --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.
After a trip to London, I wanted to read a quick summary of English history to help me recall the key figures and give me a better hold on all the Henries, Edwards and such. This book was quite readable and reasonably comprehensive.
Fraser's concise history of Britain makes for an interesting read. Fraser's writing style easily trumps many fiction writers I have read. The fact that she is dealing with truths of history makes this even more interesting. Brilliant
Superb narrative, occasional typos aside; not deep or particularly original and with a clear top down view of history, but a page turner that reads like a novel and gives a good outline of British history; highly recommended as popular history at its best
I thought the Story of Britain was a fabulous, comprehensive history, reminding me of what I loved about the study of history as an undergraduate. Though my personal interest is social history, so I didn't always follow or enjoy the political stuff, I liked how Fraser made this book something to everyone. It's a good, intelligent narrative that weaves together little stories about politics, war, social history, religion, the lives of the monarchy, and technology. Nothing is covered so exhaustive...more
1 like · like · see review
Well, I was only back from Britain for two months before I finished this! Despite the descriptions of some here, I found this to be a rather dense history, and largely lacking in anecdotes. Despite the title, there's not much "Story" here. Accepted for what it is, a political history with a focus on kings, queens, prime ministers, and wars, it's competent and accurate as far as I could tell. There's little about the life of common people and less cultural history or chronicling of achievements....more
I picked this up for research purposes, but it proved to offer an engrossing education in British history. Fraser's textbook presentation has just enough drama and personality to keep you turning the pages eagerly. Her decision to divide up Britain's history by dynasty and monarch might be evidence of the odd English obsession with the royals, but it also neatly divides the book into digestible chunks. I put this down once I got to Henry VII, which is as far as my own research needed to go, but...more
A great synopsis of a large period of time. i especially enjoyed the early years' history. i understand some people's complaints about the book being too monarch centric. i found the latter part of the book too focused on europe rather than britain, but such was british politics. in any case, any complaints were minor and as i am planning an england trip later this fall, the book was a perfect primer/refresher on britain's history.
A complete history of the empire written in delightful prose.
Just fascinating--and soooo fun to read.
Dec 10, 2010
Glenn
is currently reading it
Currently on Henry II. Very good book so far.
Very thorough, terrible tedious.
I enjopyed this work on British History. I have a few British friends who I enjoy taking the piss out of every now and then. I decided to read up on their version of their history. I have to say that I thought this was a little too heavy on the royals at first. But, Rebecca focuses on the power of Britain and the History makers. This is evident in her focus on the PMs & the MPs in the later chapters. Good read...as a Septic (Yank), I give it two fingers up (the poiner and the middle).
This book is a good intro to British history. Fraser divides the book into chapters based on the ruling monarch. This works well for telling the stories of the colorful kings and queens in the earlier chapters of the book. However, once the monarchs are less important figures the organization of the book suffers somewhat. Still Fraser did an amazing job presenting a concise, readable history, especially given the sheer magnitude of the subject matter.
Jan 09, 2012
Jeweleye
marked it as to-read
This book appears to be a more reader-friendly type of history, i.e., less dry than your typical history book. I've already read the chapter on the Romans and am into the Anglo-Saxons. An good companion volume to the Oxford history.
1/9/12 I'm putting this back on my "to-read" shelf for the time being while I focus on a 9-month editing course at the local university.
1/9/12 I'm putting this back on my "to-read" shelf for the time being while I focus on a 9-month editing course at the local university.
I really enjoyed this book even though it took quite a while for me to finish. It was exactly what I was looking for. It gave me a basic framework of British History and I really didn't know much before I started reading it. It will also be an excellent reference work in the future.
Good book. I chose to read it to prepare for my trip to England over the winter break. Well-written and presents a lot of interesting information. Very long...lots of information to cover!
Incredibly interesting history book that reads like a novel! It's been fascinating to learn about the history of England and learning where so many of our own laws have come from.
I am loving this book. Learning so much about early Britain. I am at year 1020 now. Wow almost a thousand years ago. This was a great book. Love history books.
So far very informative. Chapter one takes you through the migration of Britain from the Celts to the Romans to the Anglo Saxons.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Feb 28, 2010 11:06pm