The Shortest History of England
Published on 3. November 2020
280 pages
978-1-910400-70-8 (ISBN)
Description
READ IN A DAY. REMEMBER FOR A LIFETIME.
In his bestselling, internationally-acclaimed The Shortest History of Germany, James Hawes told the story of a nation in 240 invigorating pages, tracing the roots of today's challenges back to the first encounters with Rome. In The Shortest History of England, he takes the same approach to his homeland. As he journeys from Caesar to Brexit via Conquest, Empire and World War, he discovers an England very different to the standard vision. Our stable island fortress, stubbornly independent, the begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, is riven by an ancient fault-line that predates even the Romans; its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbours, whether we like it or not; and -- for the past 1,000 years -- it has harboured a class system like nowhere else on Earth. There has never been a better time to understand why England is the way it is -- and there is no better guide.
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James Hawes
The Shortest History of England
Book
11/2020
Old Street Publishing
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James Hawes has published six novels with Jonathan Cape. Speak for England (2005) predicted Brexit; it has been adapted for the screen by Andrew Davies, though not yet filmed. His most recent book, The Shortest History of Germany, was the bestselling history title of 2018. He is currently working on an BBC documentary series about the history of British creativity.
Content
- Intro
- PART ONE
- PART TWO
- PART THREE
- PART FOUR
- PART FIVE
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- PART ONE From Caesar to the Conqueror
- PART TWO The England of Two Tongues
- PART THREE The English and Empire
- PART FOUR Industrial Revolution
- PART FIVE Farewell the Eagles and Trumpets
- Epilogue: The Very Shortest History of England
- Picture credits
- Acknowledgements
- Also by James Hawes
- Copyright
- 1
- 2
- 3
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- 5
- Coin of Carausius, late 3rd century AD. Private collection
- Coin of King Athelstan, 9th century AD. Private collection.
- Detail from Scene 57 of the Bayeux Tapestry. 2011 Creative Commons, identified as own work by user M
- The Sinking of the White Ship. c.1321
- British Library, Cotton Claudius D. ii, fol. 45v
- G70017-90
- Henry II and Queen Eleanor. From a miniature of Philip Augustus sending an envoy, and the envoy bein
- Henry II with Thomas a Beckett. From Liber Legum Antiquorum Regum, British Library Cotton MS Claudiu
- Clash of Cavalry at the Battle of Bouvines. Detail from Les Grands Chroniques de France, Royal G VI
- Chronica Roffense
- drawing in lower margin: the Battle of Evesham and death of Simon de Montfort, 4t
- Le danse macabre: from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Creative Commons. In the library of the Cathol
- Fan-vaulting at Gloucester Cathedral, 1351. Creative Commons. Identified as own work by photographer
- Richard II's 1395 portrait. At Westminster Abbey, London.
- Coronation of Henry IV. From Harleian MS No.4679
- from Charles Knight, Old England: A Pictorial Muse
- Bradmore's sketch of his surgical instrument. Bradmore's 'Philomena', Middle English translation of
- Battle of Agincourt, from Chroniques d'Enguerrand de Monstrelet (early 15th century), BNF, départeme
- Towton skull. Reproduced by permission of Bradford University's Biological Anthropology Research Cen
- Left: Tudor image of Richard III
- 1520, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle,
- Tombs of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York
- Westminster Abbey. Author's photograph.
- The Henri Grace a Dieu (1514) Creative Commons: reproduced in The Anthony Roll of Henry VIII's Navy:
- Enclosure of a Village - diagram from paper, 'Enclosure Acts: Great Britain', Professor Robert Sirab
- Holbein's Portrait of Thomas Cromwell
- The Frick Collection. 1915.1.76
- 'Old Coppernose', debased shilling. From the Andrew Wayne Collection. Ex Spink Numismatic Circular v
- Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I. National Portrait Gallery NPG 5175:
- The great frost: cold doings in London, except it be at the lotterie. Printed at London: For Henry G
- Matthew Hopkins. Frontispiece to a tract entitled The Discovery of Witches, 1647,
- The Execution of Charles I, 1649. National Portrait Gallery. NPG D1306: Contemporary German print of
- The Prince of Orange, Welcome To London: to the tune of The Two English Travellers. Ballad dating to
- The Pump Room At Bath. Author's photograph.
- The East Offering Her Riches to Brittania, Roma Spiridone, 1778, for the Revenue Committee Room in E
- Bricked-up windows, Bath. Attributed to Flickr photographer Jo Folkes on
- 'Slave Emancipation or John Bull Gulled Out Of Twenty Millions'. Bodleian, John Johnson Coll of Poli
- Left: The Capitol, Washington, D.C. John Plumbe's daguerreotype 1846, Creative Commons: US Lib Congr
