A Short History of England, Ireland, and Scotland

A Short History

by Mary Platt Parmele

In 1707 the three kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland united to form Great Britain. "One of the most astonishing transformations in European history," in the words of historian Simon Schama. In  A Short History of England, Ireland, and Scotland  Mary Platt Parmele traces the origins and development of each nation from the dark ages to the modern era.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Scotland, Ireland, British Literature, Historical, European History

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1895

About the author

Mary Platt Parmele was an American author and historian.

Mary Platt was born in Albany and educated in New York. Her first marriage was to J. J. Agnew and her second marriage to Theodore W. Parmele. From 1892 she began contributing philosophical articles and short stories to reviews and magazines, and published Kingdom of the Invisible and Christian Science. However, her most successful books were a number of "Short History" books of various countries written in the late 19th and early 20th century. Her "Short History of..." books included France, Russia, England, United States, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

Reviews

[Mark Laufenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeping in mind that this book was written in the early 1900s, it gives a good history of England throughout the ages and covers to the point of Scotland gaining its independence from England and Ireland still trying. It starts at the very beginning with archaeological finds of the first evidence of human beings in the area and provides info on all of the emperors from Julius Caesar to the Kings and Queens that ruled England throughout its history.

You'll read about all of the constant wars that the Kings & Queens were involved in, how some ruled as tyrants while others tried to bring about peace, mostly in vain. There were the power struggles, betrayals, beheadings and relations with the papacy and the conflicts involved when trying to establish a universal religion throughout the land, either Protestant or Catholic. At the end of the book, there is a timeline listing all of the rulers, the earliest Kings through the Houses of the Stewarts, the Tudors and so on up until 1900.

I liked the author's style of writing and how she kept things moving and interesting to pack a lot of information into a condensed book. If you have an interest in English, Irish, and Scottish history up until the end of the 19th century, but don't want to read forever about every last detail, I think that this book would fit the bill.

[Doreen James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Short History of England, Ireland and Scotland

An informative, concise and historically accurate synopsis. The author did a good job of hitting the highlights of a very broad topic.

[Elizabeth de Moya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never took English history so it was very informative. I had trouble keeping track of all the kings and who killed who.

[YITING · Rating 3 out of 5]

讀到後面才知道原來作者是跟維多利亞女王同時代的美國人。這本書非常主觀，我讀到愛爾蘭史的時候有點生氣:

「但是回顾八个多世纪的反抗所取得的结果，爱尔兰人放弃抵抗“专制统治”，抛弃心中对统治者的成见，难道不是明智之举吗?英国正在努力用公平化解与爱尔兰之间的矛盾，尽管爱尔兰曾经饱受伤害，但此时接受橄榄枝，宣布停战，不正是时候吗？」

這種論調我怎麼感覺很像是加害者常對受害者說的:啊我都已經展現誠意跟你道歉了，你幹嘛還這麼生氣啊?......不過這本書讀下來對於一些歷史事件順序確實比較了解了，而且這本並不厚，這比《牛津英國史》好讀多了，也跟作者論調很主觀有關，如果都是史料，讀起來肯定比較枯燥的。所以這本我覺得還是可以一讀，是我讀的第一本不列顛史書籍。

[Andrew Gass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Effective Summary and Reference Work

While brief and dated at this point, Parmele's little work does a good job of presenting a thorough and balanced portrayal of the history of the British Isles. A good work to keep on hand as a reference for any student of history.

[steven e smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I only knew more

I chose this book to get a stronger understanding of the apparent turmoil between Ireland and England
I'm more confused than ever.
I felt like it presupposed that I had some more of a back ground in this than I do.
That's not the fault of this book or the author, this is my own short coming.
After all it wouldn't be called 'a short history if she filled in all the blanks.
But it pointed out my confusion over all the jumping about of the royalty is not my imagination..
What a tough period to have lived in as an average Joe!
I would recommend this book to anyone watching the Outlander series on tv.
P

[Neil Tillquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of the history of the UK, from Brits, Angles, and Saxons to 1900. Helped put into context the kings, major battles, religious and political currents, including English domination of the Irish.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a new book, but rather a reprint of an older text. I liked the author's style even if I didn't agree with all the opinions she expressed. It was interesting and primarily an account of each nations various monarchs and their reigns in brief. It was still interesting and informative.

[Babak · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK and short intro to the history of the region for beginners. It was interesting to see how the author consider colonizing India more as a favor England did to the Indians. Most focus is on the kings and little on the people.