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Loading... A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900by Andrew Roberts
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  andre_malta | Mar 25, 2009 |  Brit jingoism. (  ) johnclaydon | Jul 18, 2008 | A nice summary of the 20th century. However, Roberts is a little too easy on some of the mistakes of the USA/Britian. He whitewashed many of the major mistakes in Iraq. Also, while being very harsh on Clinton, he completely ignores Rwanda, which is very odd. He cannot stand the IRA (perhaps understandably), and makes note of every instance when Ireland was not aligned with the English speaking peoples. Also, he refers to several British related incidents that I don't completely understand, not really understanding their government/party history. However, he makes a strong case that our way of life only exists due to our constant protection of it (from enemies both foreign and domestic). I think he is correct in many of his defenses of the "errors" of the USA/Britian in the last century. It's his treatment of Iraq that most disturbs me - maybe because it's so fresh. All in all a good book if you know little about the 20th century outside of WWII and your current lifetime (like me). Favorite Lines/Sections: - "Mr. Churchill is, if one my use the phrase, ancestor ridden, and too addicted to history in general." - Alfred Stirling (246) - "There is no cause so vile that some human being will not be found to defend it." - Norman Douglas (213) - St. Paul's Cathedral (285) - Churchill's Harvard speech (329) - FDR's 4th Inaugural (357) - "Standing up against long, dismal, drawling tides of drift and surrender, of wrong measurements and feeble impulses" - Churchill (433) - "The duty of politician is to educate the people, not to obey them." - Mandell Creighton (623) - "The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward." - Churchill (637) - "A steady patriot of the world alone, The friend of every country but his own." - George Canning (644) (  )1  sergerca | Sep 30, 2007 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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In 1900, where Churchill ended the fourth volume of his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, the United States had not yet emerged onto the world scene as a great power. Meanwhile, the British Empire was in decline but did not yet know it. Any number of other powers might have won primacy in the twentieth century and beyond, including Germany, Russia, possibly even France. Yet the coming century was to belong to the English-speaking peoples, who successively and successfully fought the Kaiser's Germany, Axis aggression and Soviet Communism, and who are now struggling against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.
Andrew Roberts brilliantly reveals what made the English-speaking people the preeminent political culture since 1900, and how they have defended their primacy from the many assaults upon them. What connects those countries where the majority of the population speaks English as a first language—the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies and Ireland—is far greater than what separates them, and the development of their history since 1900 has been a phenomenal success story.
Authoritative and engrossing, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 is an enthralling account of the century in which the political culture of one linguistic world-grouping comprehensively triumphed over all others. Roberts's History proves especially invaluable as the United States today looks to other parts of the English-speaking world as its best, closest and most dependable allies.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400)
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Roberts writes beautifully and is very knowledgeable. (