Change - sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Simon Schama's unapologetically personal and grippingly written history of Britain, especially the changes that wash over custom and habit, transforming our loyalties.
What makes or breaks a nation? To whom do we give our allegiance and why? And where do the boundaries of our community lie - in our hearth and home, our village or city, tribe or faith? What is Britain - one country or many? Has British history unfolded 'at the edge of the world' or right at the heart of it?
Schama delivers these themes in a form that is at once traditional and excitingly fresh. The great and the wicked are here - Becket and Thomas Cromwell, Robert the Bruce and Anne Boleyn - but so are countless more ordinary lives: an Irish monk waiting for the plague to kill him in his cell at Kilkenny; a small boy running through the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth I.
The first in a series, this volume paints a rich and vivid portrait of the life of the British people and their nation.
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A History of Britain - Volume 1 9781847920126 Paperback
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- Authors:
- Schama, Simon, CBE
- Year Published:
- 2009
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Format:
- Paperback
- ISBN:
- 9781847920126
- Number of Pages:
- 352
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Publication Date:
- 05/11/2009
- Publisher:
- Vintage Publishing
- Language:
- English
- SKU:
- 9781847920126