The English and Their History
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The English and Their History
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Thorne
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By:
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Robert Tombs
About this listen
In The English and Their History, the first full-length account to appear in one volume for many decades, Robert Tombs gives us the history of the English people and of how the stories they have told about themselves have shaped them, from the prehistoric 'dreamtime' through to the present day.
If a nation is a group of people with a sense of kinship, a political identity and representative institutions, then the English have a claim to be the oldest nation in the world. They first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognisable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions can be traced back to the earliest years of their history. The English have come a long way from those precarious days of invasion and conquest, with many spectacular changes of fortune.
Their political, economic and cultural contacts have left traces for good and ill across the world. This book describes their history and its meanings from their beginnings in the monasteries of Northumbria and the wetlands of Wessex to the cosmopolitan energy of today's England.
Robert Tombs draws out important threads running through the story, including participatory government, language, law, religion, the land and the sea, and the ever-changing relations with other peoples. Not the least of these connections are the ways the English have understood their own history, have argued about it, forgotten it, and yet been shaped by it. These diverse and sometimes conflicting understandings are an inherent part of their identity.
Rather to their surprise, as ties within the United Kingdom loosen, the English are suddenly beginning a new period in their long history. Especially at times of change, history can help us to think about the sort of people we are and wish to be.
This audiobook, the first single-volume work on this scale for more than half a century, and which incorporates a wealth of recent scholarship, presents a challenging modern account of this immense and continuing story, bringing out the strength and resilience of English government, the deep patterns of division, yet also the persistent capacity to come together in the face of danger.
©2015 Robert Tombs (P)2016 Audible, LtdListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Learned, pithy and punchy, with a laudable sense of narrative sweep and a bracing willingness to offer bold judgments, [Tombs's] survey is a tremendous achievement, and deserves to become the standard history for years to come." (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times)
"Packed with telling detail and told with gentle, sardonic wit...[a] vast and delightful book." (Ben Macintyre, The Times)
What listeners say about The English and Their History
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Steve
- 07-12-16
Amazing, seems fairly balanced
Great for anyone unsure of English motivation and actions both nationally and internationally over the last few thousand years. A real eye opener to both the prides and shames of the English people.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Lynda
- 02-09-19
enlightenimg
I have struggled to finish this book, but finally after 12months of picking it up and putting it down I can say that I have enjoyed the content. I just found it a little dry to listen to. as a text book for study it is as I would have expected but a little hard to listen to for recreation
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 11-12-20
educational
excellent book. very informative and educational.
it's not just a history of England but Britain and
Europe. the reader is very good and easy to listen
to. if you like history you will enjoy this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 25-04-21
Stunning
Entertaining and thought provoking narrative of English & British History in a truly historical context. This title is much easier to listen to as an audio book than as a written text for the non historian. Though I'm not entirely convinced that amateur historians would enjoy this epic. I enjoyed how Tombs described the national story within an international setting. Wonderfully balanced, not jingoistic nor self deprecating history as history should be written.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Paul (the other one)
- 10-06-19
Still listening...
I'm about 8 hours into this, just past Agincourt and making good progress towards Tudor times -- although we seem to have gone from The pre-Viking settlements to the 16th century in record quick time, and as such I wonder what the next 38 hours will have in store!
Overall a great book, hard to follow in places, but mostly informative and concise -- there are gaps, but they're not really things that paint any significant picture of the English as an ethnicity.
I'm slowing down a bit because I'm not such a fan of the medieval war history and was hoping for something more about everyday life.
Anyway, I will get through this if it kills me and I will update this review again later. :D
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Andrew Thornton
- 23-08-19
Heavy going but interesting.
Tombs has written a thorough account of his subject, though heavier and less focussed on the bigger picture around more recent events in the later chapters. Nonetheless, this is an authoritative book and should be required reading for anyone thinking of engaging in an online debate about Brexit.....
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Paul486
- 05-08-19
Engaging and Informative
I found this book to be very engaging and informative. I feel that I have a better understanding of where as an Englishman I have come from and why some things are as they are. The narrator although slightly monotone was nonetheless able to keep me committed to the "listen". I thoroughly recommend this book
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- Peter R. Finch
- 29-07-20
Brilliant
A wonderful, insightful rendering of our history with learned and justified summaries at logical points. Thank you both for the writing and the narration. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot.
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- Mark Devlin
- 10-05-19
Very comprehensive and enjoyable
I listened to this book over 2 weeks at work. A very comprehensive and detailed account of how the English came to be, how England and it's people differs from other UK and British nations, and how it sees itself and has been seen on the world stage.
Very much recommended.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-04-22
A wealth of knowledge
There is a lot here, well worth listening to if you’ve got an interest in British (English) history. Plenty of stories can be told from this island, from what makes it similar to other cultures, to what makes it unique. Sure, it’s not all great, but overall, Britain has been the birth place of a plethora of ideas, inventions, and laws which have helped shape the world we live in today.
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