A History of Britain: British Wars, 1603-1776 Vol 2

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Simon Schama

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Pages: 416 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0563487186

Pub: BBC Books

Pub date: 2003-05-01

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 51369

Editorial Review:

The second volume of Simon Schama's BBC History of Britain: The British Wars, 1603-1776 is a more serious affair than the first. A History of Britain Vol I was free-range history: a fresh and at times iconoclastic survey of more than 1,500 years of the nation's story. Now Schama is more penned in, covering just a century and a half in 500 pages, and mixing it with the cockiest and wisest historians in the farmyard.
The ingredients that made the first volume such a spectacular success are still there: highly visual prose, fine informative illustrations, insightful thumbnail sketches of all the leading players and above all a clever interplay between what happened and, often of more significance, what people thought had happened. But this time around Schama also has to weave his way through the complex narrative of the civil war and Protectorate, restoration, "glorious" revolution and establishment of empire. He does so with clarity and wit, but also with admirable sympathy for all the conflicting protagonists--the austere Stuarts, the reluctant hero Cromwell, the cunning Walpole, the gouty Pitt and the thousands of Scots, Irish and American, and the millions of Africans and Indians whose destinies shaped and were shaped by the forging of the British state in these years.

Predictably, some history gets left out. Apart from a colourful depiction of Hogarthian London, social and economic history get short shrift, leading Schama, for instance, to imply that the British push to empire was largely the result of a popular addiction to narcotics: tea, coffee and opium. However, Schama's larger story--how a nation that was created out of a titanic struggle for liberty then went on to impose dubious dominion on much of the rest of the world--is told in a masterly and compelling manner. --Miles Taylor

Reader Reviews:

A real page-turner (1/1 people found this helpful)

I read this close upon having finished (devoured rather) volume 1, and this is as good if not better. Predictably, it's not exhaustive or extremely detailed but precisely therefore it offered what I was looking for: an easily readable, engaging (Schama is a master storyteller) overview of British history.

It's so good that afterwards I couldn't wait to get my hands on volume 3, AND buy a host of more in-depth books on particular periods or events, and surely that is the best than any history book can hope to achieve?

Still compelling (4/7 people found this helpful)

For me, this second volume of Schama History of Britain was the weakest of the 3, but still manages to come off as a wonderful narrative of the English Civil War and the dawn of the Empire. It's hard to criticise a work of such genius. Parts 1 and 3 kept more of a shared tone - fast moving, blockbuster reads - whilst this middle section slows things down for a long hard look at admittedly many of the crucial moments in our history. Still great, but a bit more of that ole Henry VIIIth scandal would have been great. I guess you can't change the story though...

Schama at his best. Compelling, superb, lucid and readable. (15/17 people found this helpful)

This is by far the best of the three volumes of Schama's History of Britain. Volume 1 needs more space to tell all the stories Schama wants to discuss; Volume 3 loses a little coherence because of its thematic rather than purely narrative approach. Volume 2 is the jewel in the crown though - an account of the 160-odd years from the start of King Charles I's reign through to the start of the American Revolution - the years that saw England transform into Britain, and from a marginal state at the edge of Europe into one of the Great Powers.

The themes of the book are nationalism, power, trade, and the complex relationship between government, monarchy and the people - Schama is a master at juxtaposing the stories of all three, showing the chains of chance, cause and influence that shape history. He quotes original sources liberally, writes in a wonderfully fluid and unaffected style, and has chosen a sensible set of illustrations to accompany the text.

Since Schama covers 150 years in the sort of space he'd previously used to cover the previous 4500 years, there is plenty of room for background, for personality and character (both the author's and those of the protagonists) to be revealed, and for analysis of the what-if's and might-have-beens.

This is narrative history at its best - a book as powerful as Schama's "Citizens" which singlehandedly rekindled my interest in European history.

Absolutely superb - a master at the peak of his talent.

Brilliant, readable and exciting history (18/19 people found this helpful)

The second of Schama's beautiful volumes technically covers 1603-1776, but (naturally) spends most of the time discussing the era around the Civil War: it was here, after all, that Britons actually spent considerable energy deciding what sort of country they were: blank canvas after blank canvas was begun only to be torn up, until the monarchy cum Parliamentary democracy compromise was reached.
Schama writes on two levels: the first is just to tell you what happened and to cover off the classic stories along the way, hence longish excursus on e.g. the Great Fire of London, the building of St Pauls, Wolfe in Quebec etc. The second is to offer his own vision for the forces behind what was going on.
Since Schama's vision is invariably fresh and insightful, this is a constantly illuminating read: he can shed light on topics you think you know well, as well as just lucidly explaining the things you knew nothing about.
Occasionally, though, this makes it a strange work. His explanation for the bringing to trial of Warren Hastings, for example, is that the Governor of India was a vicarious scapegoat for Britain's failure in America: though fascinating, that has to be a very idiosyncratic view, and yet he doesn't flag this up. All this means, I suppose, is that you shouldn't read Schama to get the standard account of things, there may be other books that do that job better.
Rather, read Schama's history for his unceasingly fresh vision.
Moreover, he expounds his themes magnificently, for example, the way Britain gravitated away from the "right" (mercantile) to the "wrong" (governing) sort of empire, or in how responsible Charles I actually was for the onset of the Civil War.
Unafraid to back the out of favour Whig view of history (that it was all inevitable progression) with relatively few qualifications, Schama's confidence is invigorating.
One minor quibble is a fallout from his TV narration, where things, instead of being "probably true", are "not altogether unfounded" or instead of being "reasonable" are "not without reason". After a while, this grates.
But this is a trivial thing.
All in all, this is simply magnificent.
I started with Volume 2 and am now beavering through Volume 1 in an effort to get myself on track.
Much, much more than a book of the series.
A classic.

An excellent read. (18/34 people found this helpful)

Schama's book avoids pomposity. The language is sometimes surprising (and I include in this the typing errors 'perpeptuated'(sic): 'constuitional'(sic)and, even more curiously on page 242, 'after the battle of hair (sic) Worcester')which serves to bring events to life. This is not the dull routine of many a text book but living and breathing history, amusing, gut-wrenching and informative. An absorbing and enjoyable read.

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