The English and Their History

Starred review from September 28, 2015
Proceeding from prehistoric times to the present at a commanding pace, Tombs (coauthor, with Isabelle Tombs, of That Sweet Enemy), an expert at the University of Cambridge on Franco-British relations, focuses on England and the English while paying due regard to their Irish, Scot, and Welsh compatriots. No one will confuse this work with the celebrated, sweeping multivolume histories of Macauley, Trevelyan, and Churchill, but this is nevertheless a brilliant distillation of a vast tale and arguably the finest one-volume history of any nation and people ever written. Rare is the historian who can maintain balance amid the interpretive snares posed by such a large subject poses, especially while making “memory and its creation an inherent part of the story.” But Tombs succeeds, all the while clearly stating the bases for his judicious assessments. His lively coverage of social, cultural, and political history is dazzling, while his compressed reviews of such complicated matters as the Civil War of the 1640s, Victorianism, and English “decline” may be unsurpassable. Everyone from King Arthur to the Hobbit makes an appearance. It’s hard to identify a source Tombs hasn’t consulted or an apt quotation he’s neglected to slip in. Comprehensive, authoritative, and readable to a fault, this book should be on the shelves of everyone interested in its subject. Maps and illus.

Starred review from September 1, 2015
A massive yet accessible study of the historical and linguistic continuity that make up the English people. In a wonderfully reasoned and tidily structured book presented in one surprisingly approachable doorstop, English scholar of Anglo-French relations Tombs (History/Univ. of Cambridge; The Paris Commune, 1871, 1999, etc.) finds much to (quietly) celebrate in English history since ancient times, especially compared to the more violent convolutions that have plagued neighboring European and Asian states-France, Russia, China, and others. The author embarks on his narrative with an eye toward how the English have regarded and valued themselves, a "collective memory" as recorded in Latin as early as the eighth century by Northumbrian monk Bede. He noted the English people's significance as deriving from their early Christian conversion, allowing them early access to power and allies and a "much better chance of survival." Thus, Tombs sees English identity as coalescing around Christian ministries, centers of political, economic, and even military power. A "customary law" emerged, a strong administrative system based on the "scir" (shire), governed for the king and involving, most important, a widespread system of participation in government. The "community of the realm," as reinforced by the Magna Carta (1215) and incipient Parliament of 1258, allowed the political continuity to prevail even after the cataclysmic upheavals of the Norman Conquest (1066). Moreover, as Tombs emphasizes, the English language displayed extraordinary durability in the wake of the French invasion, moving from vernacular to officialese to law and poetry, becoming a "language for a nation." While England's history is enormously complex, Tombs sharply organizes it by galvanizing themes, from the devastating religious wars (1500-1700) and the Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, and Victorian era to the two world wars and the debate over "an age of decline." What the author calls a "national nonchalance" is perhaps surprising in light of this unique continuity of political structure and cultural treasures. European history buffs and readers undaunted by a 1,000-page history will find a lucid, engaging, and pleasantly nondidactic book, with helpful maps.

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Starred review from October 15, 2015

Memory and experiences formed and continues to sustain one of the oldest surviving nation-states today. These are Tombs's (history, Cambridge Univ.; That Sweet Enemy) unifying themes in his hefty single-volume history of the English people. The people, who took the name "English," emerged in the eighth century to establish an empire and by 1,000 CE had created the kingdom of England. In a fast-paced narrative, Tombs explores the characteristics--a sense of kinship, cultural similarity, participatory government, representative institutions--that have given the English their identity for the past millennium. Selectively taking material from the vast array of primary and secondary sources of English history, he integrates the process of memory and its creation into the story, emphasizing creators and carriers such as language, religious and political institutions, and historical writing. VERDICT Anglophiles interested in a one-volume, comprehensive history of England will savor this study, while scholars and professionals in political science and government will find in it useful perspectives. Thoroughly researched, the narrative flows effortlessly.--Glen Edward Taul, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

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