Small Island: 12 Maps That Explain The History of Britain

by Philip Parker

With the uncertainty of Brexit looming, Britain as we know it is on the brink of defining change. With current borders being disputed and, with them, identities challenged, this book will provide a brilliant insight into how our country's borders have always been, and always will be, in a state of change.

From the Celtic period when 'Britain' was just a patchwork of tribal kingdoms; to the height of the empire a century ago, when the whole of Ireland, India, Australia, much of Africa, Asia and the Americas were marked as British; through to the present-day when Britain's shape and extent is once more in question, these maps dramatically chart the political and cultural evolution of the nation.

By focusing on these maps Philip Parker reveals how Britain came to be the way it is today, and how the past is a guide to where we might go from here.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature

279 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2021

Reviews

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is inaccurate and depicts the Republic of Ireland as part of the United Kingdom if a book about maps can’t identify countries then it’s of no use.

[M S · Rating 1 out of 5]

In accurate mapping. Republic of Ireland mapped as being part of the United Kingdom

[John McGoldrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ahem, I see more than one major island here. Haven’t read the book but the cover puts me off. Even under British ‘rule’, Ireland was never ‘Britain’.

The last acceptable colonialism is still alive and well.

[Craig Rowland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Small Island: 12 Maps That Explain the History of Britain by Philip Parker was deceiving in that its title led me to believe the book was going to be all about historical maps of Great Britain. I should have known that it wasn’t such a book before I even read it, because the book was utterly devoid of any viable maps. I could have just opened it up to see for myself. The maps that were included were small, as this was a small-format paperback (yet not a pocketbook) and the maps were in shades of grey with microscopic font. I found them useless. As a retired library worker I know my Dewey Decimal Classification system so the call number for this book–a simple 941–should have been enough to tell me that the subject matter was history of the British isles. A book about maps would have been in the 912’s.

I started this book one day before I left for a vacation to Finland, and spent the entirety of the first leg of the flight, from Toronto to Copenhagen, reading it. The screen in front of my seat onboard was not working at all, so I faced a black void for eight hours. With no distractions (I never watch movies anyway; I enjoy mapping the plane’s progress over the globe) I could get a huge chunk of this book read in one sitting. I read more of it during our train trips across Finland, and then finished it on the return flight.

The history starts with the first century BC, thus a millennium before Cnut, who isn’t mentioned until page 98. Parker took the reader through a thousand years of British history, from the Anglo-Saxon to the Viking invasions, wars with Scotland and the creation of the United Kingdom, then Tudor, Stuart and Hanover Britain, ending with chapters on imperial and then modern Britain with speculation on the Britain of the future. I didn’t find the history all that exciting, however the chapter on Brexit and the shock of the result upon the nation, which was completely gobsmacked about what to do next, had me lapping up every page.

The only mention of maps was how the borders changed with the various wars with Scotland, and how Britain gained and then lost territory on the European mainland, in what is now France. The expanding British empire saw the kingdom expand into North America, Africa, Asia, central and South America, and throughout the oceans, so the map expanded as territories and their indigenous populations were conquered. As colonies gained their independence, the map shrank. Parker erred in placing the island of St. Helena in the Indian Ocean, however, rather than the Atlantic.

The map used to depict the entire British empire was confined to a slip no bigger than an address label, leaving Australia smaller than my thumbnail. This really made the whole idea of including “maps” in the subtitle laughable. I really let out a mocking tut when I read, in the acknowledgements, a word of gratitude for Jeff Edwards “for the maps, which are the visual stars of the book in charting Britain’s progress from the Stone Age to Brexit”. The stars is an apt metaphor, since you would need a telescope in order to see anything.

[Andrew Macfarlane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite good on early history and though it took a long while to read the first few chapters there was a good deal I learnt. From 1066 onwards though it becomes a fast track, the brakes aren't working dash through British history. Much of the book might have been written as one sentence. A led to B which led to C which meant D had to happen that cause E and F to become inevitable which led to...... Up to the Tudor era the histories of Scotland,Wales and Ireland are featured and well explained on those instances when the history of the people within what are now those areas affected the island history. Then suddenly another chapter is given over to them. It repeats the same history then skips through centuries in a couple of sentences not stopping to explain rather than briefly mention major impactful events such as the Irish Civil War or the Highlands Clearances (which I didn't see mentioned despite the Scottish people's dreadful act of imposing them on their own people is probably replicated in their enthusiastic support and involvement in the running of the British empire). Worse still the author falls for the myth of Scottish exceptionalism.

[Stewart Monckton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a long time to complete this book - and I think it would have helped if a number of 'family trees' had been provided to help me keep track of who was who in the complex lines of succession in some of the royal houses! (Although maybe the editors / author of a book about '12 maps' felt that any other form of graphic apart from maps was a bad idea)

The finally section, which includes an historical view of Brexit, was really very good and set a historical context for that vote.

SM

[Emma H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for a short overview of British history - which at least for me was helpful in connecting the dots since the UK curriculum is so bad at equipping us a holistic perspective; sometimes so high level it handles sensitive subject matter crudely

[Felix Homma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating historical overview, but too dense for me. Often several names of different warlords/aristocrats are introduced on the same page and already irrelevant on the next page. A reduced number of core introduced players would have made it a more enjoyable read.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anglocentric garbage.