A Brief History of Britain 1851-2021

A Brief History of Britain #4

by Jeremy Black

From the Great Exhibition to the Credit Crunch -- the transformation of Britain from the world's greatest nation to the present day. In 1851 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, it was the high water mark of English achievement -- the nation at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, at the heart of a burgeoning Empire, with a queen who would reign for another 50 years. In the following 150 years, the fate of the nation has faced turmoil and transformation. But it is too simple to talk of decline? Has Great Britain sacrificed its identity in order to stay part of the present world order. Leading historian, Jeremy Black, completes the landmark four volume Brief History of Britain series with a brilliant, insightful examination of how present day Britain was formed.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ebooks

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Jeremy Black is an English historian, who was formerly a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).

Reviews

[Anthony]

The narrative is a bit dry with hardly any anecdotes. The author was also a bit biased in his interpretation of events after WWII. I'd venture to say that he's a staunch conservative; which is fine, however I believe a responsible historian aught strive to present facts with as little bias as possible, unless he/she is writing a specific critique as opposed to a general history. I do not recommend this book. I am currently reading Andrew Marr's book, which is infinitely superior to this junk.

[Andrew-Mario Hart-Grana]

The last book of a very good collection on the History of Britain. This is a very summarised, yet interesting and controversial at times, account of the last century and a half of British history. There are some good insights there. Some good connections between the current situation and not-too-distant past events (like Britain's membership of the EU, for example). Would totally recommend it.

[James Cay]

In the end I found this book a little hard going and not because it wasn’t well written. This has been a decent series overall covering such a broad sweep of history in such relatively slim volumes and it has underlined that I am far more interested in more distant history which feels like another world, and certainly not mined from within living memory. The section in this book covering the transition from the Victorian era to a more recognisably modern age was interesting and informative but as the twentieth century marched on into the twenty-first, this started to feel a bit like reading an extended newspaper article and I lost some of the excitement that I normally feel when reading ‘history’. The other downside of reading about events of my own lifetime - some of which I had direct experience of - was that I didn’t always completely agree with the authors’ characterisation of these events, rather like my experience of reading newspapers of course. I am not being critical of the author here, far from it, I think this book is excellent. Moreover, this has served as a reminder to me that all authors bring a personal perspective to their work, no matter how balanced and objective they may try to be. When I’m reading about the Plantagenets for example, it is hard for me to second-guess an expert historian when they describe events or offer interpretations of records and evidence, and the temptation is to take everything at face value. Now, having read about the world in my lifetime as history, and through the eyes of one historian, I am encouraged to continue to be a critical consumer of the older stuff and try to seek out different views and voices where possible.

[Katriona]

I've not actually finished it, I just got so bored. The author lists several facts and figures, but rarely interprets or explains them. I also don't like how the structure is thematic rather than chronological, which led to monumental events such as WW1 and WWII being neglected. The tone is incredibly dull--but I found out that the author was awarded an MBE for his contribution to stamp design. Stamp design. It explains a lot.