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The Story Of England (2010)

by Michael Wood(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0670919039 (ISBN13: 9780670919031)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Viking

review 1: I've read this book before - this is my second go-round. And I love it. The book jacket description: For a small country off the edge of Europe, England's influence on the history of the world has been disproportionately great. Its language and literature, and its ideas about politics and freedom, have spread across the whole of the globe. But what is England and who are the English? And how did the English people develop their unique way of seeing the world?In this tale of epic sweep and mesmerizing detail, Michael Wood tells the story of an English community, from the Romans until today, exploring the national narrative through the eyes of one small place. That place is Kibworth, a village in Leicestershire, at the very centre of England. Its story is the story of depart... moreing Romans, Saxon and Viking immigrants, and Norman conquerors; of the Great Famine and the Black Death; of religious and political conflicts, and the Industrial Revolution; of the Empire and two world wars. All made their impact on this small community. And through it all, with their tenacity and tolerance, and their ways of organizing society, they passed down their cultural DNA to modern English people. Using a uniquely rich documentary archive, as well as recent archaeological discoveries, letters, tax rolls, photographs and diaries, The Story of England unfolds a tale of real people, which at times reaches the intimacy of a novel. It shows how history can be told not just from the top but from the bottom too - this is a story of Anglo-Saxon peasants, medieval reeves, Tudor vicars, Victorian framework knitters and First World War soldiers.
review 2: I've read and enjoyed many of Wood's books so I am looking forward to this one. Just in a chapter deep so far.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Finished on Friday. It's slow going when I mostly read on break at work.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Enjoyable read. Needs a bit more of a timeline along with the history. Would probably be better if the reader had a firm grasp on what was happening in the background around England as a whole while Wood was relating what was happening in this one village. But then I guess this was written more for people in England. They might be likely to know their history better than we do here in the States. But, given modern education? Maybe not. less

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