This Sovereign Isle
Britain In and Out of Europe
Published on 28. January 2021
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-0-241-48038-0 (ISBN)
Description
THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
The author of the celebrated bestseller The English and Their History puts Brexit in its historical context
Geography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe.
In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans.
The author of the celebrated bestseller The English and Their History puts Brexit in its historical context
Geography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe.
In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans.
Reviews / Votes
confident ... surprising and original ... and humble ... Tombs's opening chapter, putting Britain's relationship with Europe into a wider historical context, offers more insights than entire shelves of rival Brexit books. "Geography comes before history," he begins. "Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary." ... Like all good historians, Tombs can be entertainingly bitchy [yet] all the time, with elegant wit, he punctures myth after myth -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * To Remainers interested in reading a civilised & learned defence of Brexit, I highly recommend it -- Tom Holland The time has finally come for the whole issue [of Brexit] to pass from the hands of journalists into those of historians. Robert Tombs, emeritus professor of French history at Cambridge, has started the process of objective historical analysis with a profoundly thoughtful explanation of how Brexit happened, and why ... Tombs has a witty turn of phrase and agreeably ironic style that means that he never descends into polemic ... If journalism is the first draft of history, then This Sovereign Isle is its penultimate draft, and the best we will have for many years. -- Andrew Roberts * Daily Telegraph * [a] crisp account of the divorce ... remarkable as a chronicle of national disillusionment... the work of a Leaver, but not a Little Englander.. [Tombs] has made a strong and rational case for the Leave vote and may actually persuade some readers that Brexit was not an act of conspiratorial folly -- Roger Boyes * The Times * admirably independent-minded and well argued ... should indeed be made compulsory reading for all Brexiteers -- Richard Evans * New Statesman * Tombs is a historian of rare elegance and puckish wit [and] This Sovereign Isle is a light and spritzig essay -- Ferdinand Mount * Financial Times * Cambridge professor Tombs offers a fine first draft of history in this objective explanation of how and why Brexit happened. Tombs takes a witty, engagingly ironic approach to the false claims of Project Fear. -- Summer reading * The Telegraph * A short, punchy, eloquent statement from such a distinguished historian -- Fintan O'Toole * The Guardian * A rare intellectual proponent of Brexit, Robert Tombs infuriates pro-Europeans-even more so because of his undeniable calibre as a historian ... This Sovereign Isle argued that the Leave vote was inevitable as well as rational: the UK never fitted the European project. He understands this as a reaction to the traumas of the continent's story - traumas that Britain's distinctive journey has sometimes ducked ... His theme - national identity in a fracturing world - has contemporary significance far beyond these shores. -- The world's top 50 thinkers, 2021 * Prospect * Really interesting, regardless of what side you voted on. Even if you voted remain it's well worth reading -- Nihal Arthanayake * BBC Radio 5 * bracing stuff, and very convincing -- James Hawes * Spectator * intelligent and insightful. Readers are sure to find This Sovereign Isle a page-turner * Entertainment Focus * a heroic book... a cracking read -- Mark Dolan * TalkRADIO * Tombs' account of the context is valuable to us economists for at least two reasons. First, he reminds us that the debate was not only - or even primarily - about economics, despite his own initial nervousness on that score. Second, he does not subscribe to the UK's miserabilist, declinist, establishment outlook ... It is a refreshing stance. I voted to remain -- Kevin Gardiner * Society of Professional Economists *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 144 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
346 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-48038-0 (9780241480380)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2021
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€9.49
Available for download
Person
Robert Tombs is Emeritus Professor of French History at Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John's College. Most of his writing and teaching has been on French and European history and on Franco-British relations, for which he was awarded the Palmes Academiques by the French government. Since his foray into English history, with the publication of The English and Their History in 2014, he has become a frequent commentator on contemporary issues, and is co-editor of the pro-Brexit academic website Briefings for Britain.