Lost Realms Quotes

“Its subtext – that the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ English were chosen by God, that they were inherently superior to the native British people whom they displaced, that their Christianity elevated their morality, that their violence against others was justified by the providential ends it served – provided a template to excuse and even celebrate the brutal treatment of both ‘Celtic’ and non-Christian people and their cultures wherever they were encountered across the globe. E. A. Freeman, the famous nineteenth-century historian of the Norman Conquest whose assessment of Alfred’s character is quoted above, wrote of America that ‘This would be a grand land if only every Irishman would kill a negro, and be hanged for it’.”
― Thomas Williams, Lost Realms: Histories of Britain from the Romans to the Vikings

“This is the standard version of early English and British history: an Anglo-centric account of unfolding national greatness that congealed in the nineteenth century, stuffed full of familiar and outdated themes of English Christian nationalism. And, despite being factually incorrect in a number of ways and deeply questionable in others, it has exercised a powerful grip.”
― Thomas Williams, Lost Realms: Histories of Britain from the Romans to the Vikings