ROBERT TOMBS is professor of history at the University of Cambridge and a leading scholar of Anglo-French relations. His most recent book, That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present, co-authored with his wife, Isabelle Tombs, is the first large-scale study of the relationship between the French and the British over the last three centuries.
Named a Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph, Times Literary
Supplement, The Times, Spectator, and The Economist
"Spectacular and massive. . . . It's a book for our times that
should also become the standard text for the century to come."
—David Frum, The Atlantic
“The English and Their History,” by Robert Tombs, is right to
combine a fresh retelling of English history with a thoughtful
analysis of the changing ways in which the English themselves have
interpreted their past. It successfully does both. . . . In this
book he bicycles pleasingly through the picturesque valleys and
stormy moorlands of England’s long adversarial struggle with
itself. . . . Tombs entertainingly describes England’s
frequent aggressive adventures into other people’s countries, not
least its immediate neighbors.” —Peter Hitchens, The New York
Times Book Review
“Robert Tombs’s The English and their History is history at its
best. He gives a fluent, elegant and abundantly energetic narrative
from the Bronze Age to the Scottish Referendum of 2014….The final
section of the book, covering the last half-century, is a triumph
of precision and candour: I have not read history that is so
important and exciting for years.” —Richard
Davenport-Hines, Times Litereary Supplement (Books of the
Year)
“As ambitious as it is successful….Packed with telling detail and
told with gentle, sardonic wit, this vast and delightful book is
exactly the weapon to throw at those who apologise for the past,
denigrate the present and fear the future.” —Ben Macintyre, The
Times (Books of the Year)
“In his massive, engaging and persuasive new book, Robert Tombs
speaks up for English history, and sometimes for England itself.”
—David Horspool, The Guardian
“The English and Their History, by the Professor of French history
at Cambridge, Robert Tombs, is a work of supreme intelligence. In
this vigorous, subtle and penetrating book, Tombs defies the
proprieties of our politically motivated national history
curriculum to rethink and revise notions of national identity.
Tombs has done nothing less than narrate with rare freshness and
confidence 2,000 years of English history....Although he is a
historian of the grand sweep, his book is full of arresting
details, quirky sidelights, telling quotes and delightful laconic
humour…. Robert Tombs’s book is a triumph. In a literal sense it is
definitive, for there is never a flash of ambiguity in any
sentence….No history published this year has been of such
resounding important to contemporary debates. Tombs, who is both
fearless and non-partisan, deserves to be rewarded with a life
peerage for this book. There can be no steadier, calmer and more
informed adviser during the constitutional crises looming in the
next two or three years.” —Richard Davenport-Hines, The
Observer
“Tombs has succeeded magnificently. Learned, pithy and punchy, with
a laudable sense of narrative sweep and a bracing willingness to
offer bold judgments, his survey is a tremendous achievement, and
deserves to become the standard history for years to come….All in
all, Tombs’s book is a superb feat of compression and analysis.”
—Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
“[A] compelling and intriguing analysis….vast in scope and full to
the brim with scholarship that has been painstakingly absorbed only
to be disgorged with an exhilarating mixture of conviction and
lightness of touch.” —Christopher Silvester, Financial Times
“Fascinating….I found it especially strong on English-French
relations, and early modern times….Definitely recommended, I
quickly became addicted to this book.” —Tyler Cowen, "Marginal
Revolution"
“Conducting a vast yet readable and sharply focused tour through
the ages, and contrasting the English with their Celtic and
continental neighbours, the thread is the evolution and paradoxical
elusiveness of Englishness....jammed with succulent nuggets.”
—Sinclair McKay, Daily Telegraph (Books of the Year)
“Robert Tombs’s timely and magisterial The English and their
History … [is] a great achievement: you’re in the hands of a
learned and considerate guide whose judgments, whether you agree
with them or not, you can be sure will be well-founded. A very good
read and possibly the most important contribution to the subject
since Trevelyan.” —Alan Judd, Spectator (Books of the
Year)
“The perfect starting point for anyone who wants to grapple with
the complexity of the English question….[Tombs] writes beautifully;
there isn’t a lazy sentence in this text.”—The Economist
“Commanding. . . . a brilliant distillation of a vast tale and
arguably the finest one-volume history of any nation and people
ever written. . . . Tombs succeeds, all the while clearly stating
the bases for his judicious assessments. His lively coverage of
social, cultural, and political history is dazzling. . . . It’s
hard to identify a source Tombs hasn’t consulted or an apt
quotation he’s neglected to slip in. Comprehensive, authoritative,
and readable to a fault, this book should be on the shelves of
everyone interested in its subject.” —Publishers Weekly
(Starred)
"Massive yet accessible. . . . wonderfully reasoned and tidily
structured...surprisingly approachable. . . . lucid, engaging, and
pleasantly nondidactic. .”—Kirkus (Starred)
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
