Robert Tombs' "The English and Their History"

RuxandraRuxandra: New book arrived with slightly torn front cover

United Kingdom on Nov 22, 2023

Jon C.: It's hard to call a book "bad" after reading almost a thousand pages; if it were bad I'd have put it down quickly. And Tombs is not a hack by any means; his research is thorough and he backs up his arguments with excellent sources.

But after 900 pages of Tombs repeatedly deciding every historical controversy in favor of the English and whoever their rulers were at the time, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the fix was in. The English, in Tombs' telling, have had a never-ended succession of wise leaders who, when they failed, were doing the best they could with what they had. His only major failing as a scholar is uncritically repeating the self-justifying "accidental empire" myth surrounding the origins of the British Empire. The Brits loved to claim they had rule of a quarter of the Earth's surface thrust upon them, as if by accident.

Tombs also betrays the chronic inferiority complex the English have vis-à-vis France, never missing a chance to compare France unfavorably to England. Later in the book, the pattern extends to that other British complex, about being reduced to an appendage of their former American colonies, by repeating the pattern he adopted...

United States on Nov 16, 2023

madi: Good book!

United States on Oct 17, 2023

edward bache: What a great book this is a highly comprehensive and highly readable history of England, probably the best book I have read on the subject.

United Kingdom on Sep 25, 2023

Philip Bailey: The best single volume history of England and our relationship with the world. A masterpiece.

United Kingdom on Aug 25, 2023

VirajViraj: The book as the title suggests is a brief history of England from 600AD to the present time (2014). It is a well researched and has a balanced perspective of English history. Though it has an unbalanced weightage in terms of content for the time until 1815 and era thereafter.

The author has beautifully covered all the aspects of human society like political, social, cultural, economics, religious and military developments. It also describes the development of english language and literature through various eras.

The period until 1815 especially the mediaeval time lacks the deep insights compared with the later period, probably must have been due to limited source material. So if you are looking for a detailed history of England in the mediaeval time then you should probably look for a different book.

None the less it is a comprehensive history of England for a person who wants to know who these people were and the formation and growth of their country and kingdom, how they came to build the biggest empire in the world and influence the people and civilization over the world and how in turn it affected their own.

India on Mar 01, 2023

David Lindsay: “The English and Their History” was written by Robert Tombs, professor of French history at Cambridge University. It is an enjoyable read and covers 2,000 years of history in 1,024 pages. Tombs is a fluent, engaging and opinionated writer. The book is crammed full of interesting information but it does not read like a textbook. Tombs tends to focus on the positive aspects of English history and usually gives the English the benefit of the doubt. Tombs often challenges traditional myths and urban legends.

Tombs is a proud Englishman and states that: “By the standards of humanity as a whole, England over the centuries has been among the richest, safest and best-governed places on earth, as periodical influxes of people testify.” England has ruled itself for most of its history. It has never lost a war at home since 1066, or been occupied, or suffered a revolution on the scale of those in France in 1789, Russia in 1917 or Germany in 1918. The English, he thinks, have been profoundly fortunate. From the ninth century onwards, it has had a distinctive language, culture, and religion, and has been more prosperous than most of its neighbors. Tombs believes that the English...

United States on Feb 13, 2021

T. Burkard: I can't imagine many British historians bothering to read this book or even to dignify it with a scathing rebuttal. Although it is full of errors, this would pale in comparison to the heretical theme--effectively, a partial resurrection of the Whig interpretation of history, albeit one which does not gloss over the ugly aspects of our history. After all, every right-thinking person knows that the British Empire was the most evil and exploitive political institution ever to have graced the annals of history, and that we clawed our way to the top through avarice and aggression. As everyone knows, a tiny minority of aristocrats and capitalists made fortunes out of the misery of the downtrodden masses both here and throughout the empire.

Yet the truth is rather different. We have become accustomed to viewing the past through our own experience and our own moral perspectives. We forget that life in the past was short and brutal, and that until the 18th century even the wealthy and powerful were lucky to die peacefully in their beds. In much of the world, this is still true. But Tombs looks at the evidence, and concludes that far from being a violent nation, the English have...

United Kingdom on Feb 14, 2016