Books on British History

November 24, 2024 12:46 PM

I just finished watching "Union" presented by David Olusoga on BBC and loved it. It's about the history of the formation of the United Kingdom. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for broad non-fiction books on British history in a similar vein i.e not a specific period?

I'm South Asian by ethnicity but British born & bred and am ashamed to say I know very little of the history of these isles. The U.K history syllabus when I was growing up seemed extraordinarily fixated on Henry VIII & the Tudors and then mysteriously jumps to WWI & WWII.

So watching this documentary series on BBC was eye opening, in particular I knew very little other than extremely broad brush strokes about Ireland as well.

I'm looking to follow up by reading a broader history of the United Kingdom, not a specific period and not too academic! Any recommendations? It's time I learnt about the country I call my own.

posted by Sunflower88 to Education (7 answers total)

Simon Schama's History of Britain is long but very accessible and broken into 3 volumes, which makes it a bit of an easier proposition. Chronological but covering multiple periods per volume; 3000bce - 1603, 1603 - 1776, 1776 - 2000. I listened to them as the audiobooks narrated by Stephen Thorne, who was excellent. I've not seen the BBC series it's linked to but remember it being well received when it came out.

Breaking your specific period criteria but maybe worth it, as they give a much more social and bottom-up view of history and are engaging, even page-turning reads, there's also the Time Traveller's Guide To... series by Ian Mortimer, covering Mediaeval, Elizabethan, Restoration and Regency England / Britain.

And on the aside, you're spot on about the UK school history syllabus; I remember it being pretty much Julius Caesar, Battle of Hastings, Spanish Armada, Henry VIII's wives, Fire of London, Industrial Revolution through the lens of Dickens, WWI+II. When I finally learned about the full spread and implications of e.g. 17th and 18th century history through my own reading, I was shocked by how thin and lacking in context my schooling had been, despite enjoying the subject and having at least a couple of talented, enthusiastic history teachers.
posted by protorp at 2:09 PM on November 24 [8 favorites]

I came here to say Simon Schama, and protorp beat me to it.
posted by Puppy McSock at 3:22 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

David Mitchell's Unruly starts in the murky time after the Romans leave Britain, and continues till the end of the rule of Elizabeth I, looking in turn at the various monarchs and their influence on their times. The audiobook, read (or rather performed) by Mitchell himself, is excellent. He's by turns blunt, funny, crude and efficiently informative, and is clear about why he ends with Elizabeth – after the Tudors, he says, the monarch is more of a sideshow than the main story.

I also admit I learned a surprising amount from 1066 And All That but it will leave your brain littered with lines like "Why do you think of John of Gaunt as a rather emaciated grandee?" forever.
posted by zadcat at 3:36 PM on November 24 [2 favorites]

the making of the english working class was at the library on audiobook when i had a long commute & i remember appreciating listening to it. written over a half-century ago though, so might be considered historical itself at this point :) thinking about your question, i learned of catherine hall. familiar with the works in another adjacent field of her late husband, stuart, i am excited to know of her histories now [wiki²]

my grandmother took me on a trip when i was a child to tintagel castle, probably because i was excited about arthurian legends. seeing the castle itself was amazing. i knew king arthur was a myth, yet this place clearly exists. fascination with how structures like this were built, maintained & become part of the landscape continues. there was a good post on the blue about tintagel a bit ago. one of the sources, english heritage, has an introduction to prehistoric england

the victoria & albert museum has a neat history. i also wrote a post about the great exhibition (now feeling very self-referential, i'm going to take a break from the internet for a bit)
posted by HearHere at 6:51 AM on November 25

I know very little of the history of these isles
Norman Davies devotes a 20 page Introduction to the niceties of nomenclature in his rather wonderful The Isles: a history (1999) . Great Britain is not congruent with the United Kingdom even if many people assume 'England' is synonymous with both. The British Isles offends some of the Irish. So what are we to call the geo-political entity that includes a Republic whose citizens are just mad for royal weddings and a Kingdom where the head of state is also the head of an Established Church whose adherents are dwarfed by the followers of The Prophet? I've performatively adopted WEA (Western European Archipelago) - my choice sure does rile folks up.

Be warned, the book is 1200 pages and weighs 1.75kg = 3lb12oz
posted by BobTheScientist at 7:39 AM on November 25

Mm. I hear you on the syllabus. In the '80s and '90s, we did prehistory, Celts and Romans, Peasants' Revolt, Tudors, Industrial Revolution, First World War. We only did the Second World War in terms of its impact on the rise of the Labour Party. We also did the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution - but not, say, the civil war, or anything about England's relationship with the British Isles... or any of the wars we fought in Europe prior to WWI... or anything at all about the British Empire. So, you know, the kind of things the rest of the world is understandably angry with us about. It's fairly embarrassing to be visiting a museum in another European capital and find out that all the paintings of blazing buildings or naval battles relate to wars with the British, none of which you even knew had happened.

I'll second what's already been recommended, including 1066 and All That (the Venomous Bead!). But just to get a sense of the shape of history, you might also want to take a look at history books aimed at children. The ones I had are probably long out of print (and probably also outdated in attitude), so I can't make specific suggestions, but if you've got a reasonably large bookshop on hand, it couldn't hurt to go and browse.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 7:52 AM on November 25

It is maybe not the "one true history", but we recently read Great Tales from English History by Robert Lacey and found it very informative. It has greater depth than you might expect, and though the title says "English History", it is actually broader than that.
posted by gudrun at 10:47 AM on November 25