A Brief History of Great Britain

by William E. Burns

Narrates the history of Great Britain from the earliest times to the 21st century, covering the entire island (England, Wales, and Scotland) as well as associated archipelagos such as the Channel Islands, the Orkneys, and Ireland as they have influenced British history. This title looks at the development of the British kingdom.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[Solenn]

Ce livre est intéressant pour approfondir sa culture sur la civilisation britannique. Néanmoins il manque parfois de détails sur des moments importants et passe trop de temps sur des épisodes moins centraux. Un bon livre toutefois, surtout s'il est complété par des sources externes.

[Ivan]

Short but rich in information, liked the plain language.

[Dino Lam]

A brief introduction of British history, and personally I don’t quite like the middle age of Britain, and the modern history part feels short as well.

[Stephen Meyers]

Brief but superficial survey of history of the U.K. More useful for its description of medieval history, which is less familiar to most and not covered well in most schools.

[Erik]

As a cursory overview of British history from the earliest settlements prior to Roman invasion up to the current leadership of PM Gordon Brown, Burns’ compact history is a great refresher course on the British Isles from a primarily English (as opposed to Welsh, Scottish, or Northern Irish) standpoint. Although it certainly doesn’t break any new ground, there was a delightful nugget in the chapter on the Anglo-Saxon invasions/immigration that put the English language itself into a perspective that I never fully realized (at least consciously, at any rate).

English was the language used to communicate between people speaking different Germanic tongues, and so over time English simplified its grammar, with less use of gender and case endings than other Germanic or European languages.

Having wondered about the surprisingly lack of gender and case endings for as long as I’ve been studying Western European languages (of the Romance variety, primarily), I haven’t hit upon such an elegantly simple explanation until now. (Whether or not this theory is accepted by the majority of linguists, I wouldn’t know.)

Once I put Burn’s brief history down, I was nearly out of my seat with a Hail Brittania in anticipation of my upcoming trip to the scepter’d isle come this August. (And thank goodness the dollar is inching its way back to a more favorable exchange rate compared to the pound sterling.)

[Sarah Allen]

This book was in the "young adult" section of the library and I picked it up without realizing that. The history is quite complete enough for my purpose which is to learn more about the British Isles before an upcoming visit.

[Z]

I wonder