A Short History of England

This is an agreeable, easy to read, history of the English nation through twenty centuries.

R. J. A. White (Author)

9780521094399, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 August 1967

304 pages
21.5 x 13.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.39 kg

This is an agreeable narrative, easy to read, of the history of the English nation through twenty centuries. It is intended for the reader who wants a comprehensive survey that brings out the important lines of development but does not clog the story with too many facts, dates, treaties and battles. Underlying the account is a professional scholar's acquaintance with historical scholarship, conveyed as a stimulating succession of ideas. The reader gets a strong sense of the evolution of English society: the mixture of law, custom and innovation in its constitutional history; its curious blend of characteristics. There are numerous lively - and sometimes surprising - quotations from the sources. Its compass is the whole field of English history from the Roman occupation to the end of the nineteenth century; a brief postscript brings the story up to the present day.

Introduction
1. Roman Britain
2. Saxon England
3. The Anglo-Norman state
4. Common law and charter
5. The high Middle Ages
6. The Nation-state
7. The first Elizabethan Age
8. The Civil War
9. The withdrawing roar
10. The century of success
11. The first British Empire
12. The age of everything
13. War and peace
14. Victorian Ages
15. Imperial and Edwardian
Postscript
Index, Maps.

Subject Areas: History [HB]