abandoned

not enough scandal to be titillating gossip, not enough analysis to be interesting ( )

Most English history books focus on the kings and queens of the land. Occasionally you'll read a book, usually fiction, about some other aspect of history - towns or village life. But this is the only book I've read that talks exclusively about the aristocratic class and how history worked from THEIR perspective. Which doesn't mean that kings and peasants don't get their fair share - they do. It's just that the emphasis is on the 'upper class' and their role in the history of Great Britain.

Some of it was review. I was glad to get a chance to read about the signing of the Magna Carta. Some was entirely new. I never really understood the history of the House of Lords or the Glorious Revolution, for instance. And some was confusing. I still don't really understand the War of the Roses.

While I enjoyed this book, and it sure gave me much to think about, it was overload in the amount of names that were thrown around. I had a very hard time keeping things straight. The writer also assumes that the reader already knows about English history and society, and doesn't explain things as much as he occasionally needs to, especially during the modern era. I got kind of overwhelmed.

It's safe to say that this book will not overcome my own republican tendencies - that's with a lower case r, to be sure - but it did give me a lot to think about. I am still very much a populist at heart, but when the aristocratic tradition worked as its best, a tradition of honor and public service, it produced great things for England. But when it went wrong, it was amazing how much suffering it caused. ( )