I’ve been reading The Story of Britain, by Rebecca Fraser. It’s a survey history of Britain from ancient times to the present, and I’m enjoying it. I took a British history course in college, but I’d forgotten a lot of it.
My college course was a year-long class, and I had wildly different professors in the fall and spring. The fall professor, who covered English history up to 1688, was old-fashioned and histrionic. All I really remember is him telling us the tale of the princes in the tower in this wildly over-the-top and dramatic manner.
The second half covered British history from 1688 to the present, and I enjoyed it much more – in part because I found the modern era more interesting, and in part because the professor was much more sane and coherent and analytical.
This book is bringing it all back, and filling in the gaps I’d missed. It focuses more on the monarchs in the first half, but once it gets to the 18th or 19th century, it turns into a more general history. I’m about 70% through the book, up to the middle of the Victorian era.
One great thing about reading this book is that I’ve finally memorized the order of the English monarchs from William the Conqueror to the present. I was already mostly familiar with the Tudors onward, but everything before that just seemed like a mishmash of Henrys, Edwards and Richards. No more; now it all makes sense. Along with the book, this Wikipedia page has been pretty helpful in getting things straight, particularly this simplified family tree.
Also, since I’m much more familiar with American history, it’s always interesting to see it from the British point of view. The American Revolution is a pretty big deal. The War of 1812 is barely mentioned; although it was a major milestone in the formation of an American national identity, the British were much more occupied at the time with Napoleon’s takeover of Europe (although they did manage to burn the White House to a shell). The U.S. Civil War matters because of its effect on the cotton trade. It’s kind of like those books or movies where you encounter the same events from wildly different points of view.
I love history so much. I don’t know why. I’m kind of addicted to learning, although sometimes my brain capacity is too small for my ambitions: I can’t read as fast as I’d like to, and I can’t remember as much of what I read as I’d like to, either. Still, I love it.