Little Arthur's History of England

by Maria Graham (Creator)

Originally published in 1835, this children's history of England offers a lively and engaging introduction to the country's past. From the time of the early Britons to the reign of Queen Victoria, Callcott presents a vibrant and detailed account of England's kings and queens, wars and battles, and cultural achievements. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: History, Childrens, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1835

About the author

Maria Graham, later Maria, Lady Callcott (sometimes credited as Maria Callcott), was a British writer of travel books and children's books, and also an accomplished illustrator.

Reviews

[Peggy Kruger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this little book and have read it at least 5 or 6 times. Obviously she is biased: all Catholics are bad, the Scots and Irish ingrates, Protestants are virtuous, etc. She is unintentionally funny at times with her opinions such as how she thinks that but for having his two little nephews murdered, Richard III was a fine ruler. I just love it. It's like having the Dowager Countess recite history.

[Morticia Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed reading about history since I was seven, but I had a dodgy start with this one, the first history book I read. It's a rather humourless instructional book, written by a well to do English lady for her young nephew. Its rabid anglo-centrism provided my first encounter with bias in history writing: Catholics or Papists were corrupt, Mary Tudor was the hellqueen, her Protestant sister Elizabeth the golden girl; the Scots and the Irish were illiterate roughnecks, , and the French treacherous and cowardly. Amazingly it still seems to be in print, according to Amazon.

I’m pleased to say that even at such a malleable age, I managed to read the whole book without absorbing its jaundiced views, possibly because I was raised as a Catholic, and I have Irish and Scottish roots, and French relatives. Surprisingly, I even enjoyed it and it gave me a useful outline of English history that would be useful later on when I started to study history more formally at school.

[^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charmingly illustrated & still surprisingly useful for checking dates of events in English history. Though in language this book has dated; its structure of telling history as a series of factual stories really works well.

This is the kind of book that English children need in school today; because the State school National Curriculum ensures that only a few periods of history are taught. This results in depriving a majority of children from gaining so much as a basic knowledge, or timeline, of reigns of the Kings and Queens, and hence of key historical events forming the story of the English nation, from 1066 onwards.

For an adult, I think the reading of "Little Arthur's History of England" would be most entertainingly followed up by reading WC Sellar's and RJ Yeatman's "1066 and All That" (a favourite of Ian Hislop's!)