1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World

History books are notably hard to write for an inattentive, probably ill-educated mass audience. Books written by historians for historians are hard to sell, because they're usually inelegantly written. Okay, they're usually BORING to the point of suicide.

This is a popular history written like a standard work of today's non-fiction, with real attention to the narrative drive of the story and also a fine hand at illuminating the character of the dramatis personae. McLynn's book is very involving, and it's a rarity in that the subject matter, the role of the events of a single year in the subsequent development of the world, is handled un-portentously.

The urge to shout and wave one's arms about when presenting historical facts that one knows will be important later must be nigh on irresistible. McLynn resists. He lets the story develop at the same pace as the year itself did, though inevitably the events move out of strict time sequence because the narrative is driven by the locations as much as by the time. I was impressed by the analysis in the book, the support for his contention that, had 1759 turned out differently at any point, then so would our present world. It's very hard to make that weave into a book about the past without coming across as a cranky, tendentious old fuffertut. McLynn manages to do it, so KUDOS!

Why, then, only 3-1/2 stars? Because I don't think McLynn accomplished his stated aim of making a watertight case for 1759 being the final turning-point of the British march to world domination. I'm certainly not an historian, but there are some unsupported assertions in the book that could simply represent holes in my education and be facts that are Received Wisdom. But there are enough of them that I wasn't all the way convinced by the text.

Recommended? Oh yes, please go get one and read it of you're an Anglophile, a Francophobe, or an aficionado of the 18th century's fascinating history. It will repay you...especially the last chapter, on the naval Battle of Quiberon Way. Exciting stuff! ( )

As a Brit, reading this book is easy. After all, we come out on top in all the particular campaigns talked about. I imagine a patriotic Frenchman would find it rather irritating.

However, I must somewhat take issue with the title of the book. 1759 was not, so far as I am aware, quite the year that Frank McLynn cranks it out to be. Oh to be sure there were a crucial series of events, but Canada and India were not finished off for another couple of years, the war in Europe itself dragged on, and so on and so forth. The only particular part where I think the subtitle is merited is when it comes the Battle of Quiberon Bay, and even there it is incidental. The Seven Years War was the point when Britain managed to get naval logistics sorted out, and Quiberon Bay was surely one of the results. The seeds harvested at Trafalgar were sowed here, and in that small realm the title has some truth.

A fun read though, as I said. And quite useful in its way if you want a little more detail on the first half of the Seven Years War - at least from Britain's perspective. For as I have intimated, this book is thoroughly Anglo-centric. ( )