The History of Britain in 50 Events

by Stephan Weaver

This book provides an easy to understand overview of British History in 50 Events. Inside you will learn about… - The Foundation of London - The Great Viking Invasion - The Battle of Hastings - The Black Death - The Battle of Waterloo - The Last Public Hanging And much more!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ebooks, British Literature, Historical

65 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2015

Reviews

[Bea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, this book does what it says. It states 50 significant events. However this is done in the most boring way possible and it would’ve been better if the author didn’t just state facts with a load of dates.

[Iza Brekilien · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a free e-book, but if I had perused it before reading it, I wouldn't have paid it any attention. I thought at first it would be a good occasion to refresh my history, but those events were barely a paragraph long most of the time. At least, I have removed it from my TBR pile.

[Jack S Parker Jr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting but many careless errors!

Don't like sloppy scholarship ... Not a total waste but pretty close ... If you can afford to waste a couple of hours ok.

[Athena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I considered giving this book 2 stars, but the writing was so abysmal I just couldn't. Not that is was boring or dry, which is sometimes the argument against books on history. It was filled with typos, nonsensical sentences, puzzling word choice, and terrible grammar.

HOW does this book have a rating of over 3 stars? Did people actually read the book?

[Vicky Pilkington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read about some of the main events in UK history. It was quite brief but can't complain as it was a free book on kindle

[Lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love history, but it's been a while since school, so I hoped this book would help to solidify knowledge that had become somewhat shaky. Alas, various errors had me wondering about the accuracy of the material. Moreover, nothing stuck as the 50 events were not in bullet form, nor were they written in that compelling style that sears facts into memory.

I like the concept, but better editing would have improved this book enormously.

[Emilija · Rating 1 out of 5]

2024 52 Book Challenge - 24) A Cover Without People On It

There are glaring historical errors in this book, which make me question the premise of the entire thing. Off the top of my head, I can remember the James II being called Charles II’s son, with the author doubling down half a paragraph later and calling them father and son, when in reality, they are brothers. The other one I can remember is Walpole being elected as Britain’s first Prime Minister, when in actuality, he was never elected as Prime Minister, being as the role of Prime Minister did not exist in that time period. Walpole is now considered the UK’s first Prime Minister due to his strength and maintenance of control in the House of Commons and his support from within the monarchy, who at that time still called for and dismissed governments based on who could command enough control in the House of Commons and the House of Lord and whoever supported them. For instance, after the succession of George I, in 1714 he dismissed the Tory government and replaced them almost entirely with Whigs as they had supported him. The Whigs would then have a period of ascendancy, and would remain in control for almost 50 years.

Honestly, I probably would have found more accurate information from Wikipedia.

Also, I wasn’t a great fan of the fact that most of this book focused on pre-1066 history. It only got to 1066 at 45% of the way through, and then the rest of the book felt incredibly rushed.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does exactly what it sets out to do, to give the reader a quick rundown of the 50 key events which shaped Britain. Of course, there are plenty of other books out there that go into more depth on any of the events covered in this book so if you want to learn more about anything covered in this book, you can. Isn't that the beauty of books; there's something for everyone.

Personally, for me, I really appreciated the way this book was written and would recommend it to anyone interested in learning about British history in a concise way.

[Bernard Tagliavini · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great concept to write a short, compact 'hourly read' history on various topics. Helpful for people to get an overall picture of a subject, even if one can argue it's somewhat sketchy and omits many important facts.
What sadly (and quite badly) lets this particular Stephan Weaver book down is the very poor proof reading, plus an irritating over use of the definitive article when not required, together with some questionable syntax. You may think I'm perhaps being a little harsh, but I found these flaws very distracting in the reading.

Using Wikipedia is the other option....

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compact view on 8500 years of history, from England becoming an island after temperatures soared and ice melted to Viking invaders, Danish invaders, Alfred the Great, The Magna Carta, the Black Death, Richard III, Henry VII, the Field of the Cloth of Gold, Henry VIII, India, WWI, Ireland, WWII, more wars, the Chunnel. This covers a lot without going into great detail on any of it, just a taste, so to speak. It does cover an awful lot of subjects, 50 to be precise. Important events that happened in Britain's history, that shaped the nation and made it what it is today. A very short but interesting book.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book. It very briefly covers fifty very important events in British history. To me the value of the book is that it covers almost all of British history and the reader is not overwhelmed by a massive book. Instead, even the short descriptions are done well enough to allow the reader to learn about something that he or she may decide is so interesting that further research into a specific topic becomes a goal.

A neat way to learn about history and pick what you find most interesting.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Quick Read Summarizing English History

A quick and enjoyable synopsis of English history. Suffers a bit from numerous grammatical errors and what can be presumed to be typos. For example stating in the opening paragraph that Britain "joined" the Roman Empire in AD 43, or that America declared Independence on July 1st, 1776, or a reference to the "English Channels".

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a short. The events were presented in paragraphs and filled in some stuff, like the war of the roses and Henry VIII. It also skipped over events that was sure to further educate if more time was spent. The book was not disappointing.

This was an ARC waiting for a review by me once read.

[Joan Lloyd · Rating 1 out of 5]

First you have to be from England to make sense of the locations. As an American, I have no idea what's west, west, north or south and there are no maps.
Second the grammatical mistakes make it almost impossible to read.
Sarcasm here - other than that it was fine (grrr) and I had hoped to learn something.

[Isabel Steidele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does give a very brief summary of the history of britain. It does leave out some very important events in history. It didn't just leave out events but also very important people that shaped history. Overall it was a nice and quick read but I felt like it was missing a lot.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disgracefully inept

I have seen 8th graders turn in better term papers. This author makes themself seem like a Nobel laureate but the publication is rife with factual and grammatical errors.

[Douglas Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice summary of British history in 50 events.
I would have included more twentieth century events, like the Falkland Islands war for example or few paragraphs about Margaret Thatcher. I would have also liked to see talk about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

[R MORLEY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short reads of the basics of Britain's history

Very good .enjoyed the read .short precise information that you can build on with further research.would definitely recommend this book

[Mr G Botting · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very Poor

The content is trivial, poorly presented grammatically, with many misspellings, and the use of incorrect words. I gave up after 30 pages so bad was this book.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating

There was some events in here that I didn't know about, definitely worth the read especially if you love history

[Stella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really boring, even though it only had 100 pages it was a tedious read. It misses out lots of events, you would be much off using Wikipedia.

[david price · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of some of the key events in British history.

[Keith Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

All about Great Britain

I loved this concise history of the UK - great to have a simple summary of each of the Historic Milestones

[Sarah Gent]

Poorly written. This makes me question the accuracy of the content. However, free so can’t complain.

[marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book quite interesting, shortened events but to the point,great read.

[Lisa D. Roman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that well written

For good super quick review of some of the s significant events in British history, ok. Lacks detail. Not very well wriiten. But hey, it's free.

[Shelley Kaloci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well presented

Very easy to follow and understand. Interesting subject matter. Events are relevant to history, and a lot I never knew about

[Eye8pudding · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting overview but lacking some context and important details...and in desperate need of proofreading.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weaver's writing style is very readable, and his content is interesting.

[Kenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars