The Isles: A History

The Isles: A History is a history of the British Isles focusing on two key issues: first, the evolution and interrelationships of its constituent parts, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and, second, the relationship between the Isles as a whole and the rest of Europe. It is a revisionist approach to the extent that Davies tries to undo the anglocentric bias of previous historians.

The author begins with a lecture on terminology. You should not say "England" when you mean "Britain," or "Great Britain" when you mean "The United Kingdom." Nor should you use labels before their time. There was no England until the Anglo-Saxons came. There was no Scotland before the Scots. He goes to the extent of inventing his own names for places rather than use a common term anachronistically. Pre-Celtic Wales, for example, is called "The Afternoon Country."

The work is divided chronologically into ten chapters. Each chapter is further subdivided into three sections. The first section sets the theme for the chapter by giving us a detailed look at some event or issue, usually from an outsider's perspective. We see, for example, events in Denmark leading up to the Norse invasions of the Isles. The middle section of each chapter is the meat of the book, discussing the history of that period in an approach that is more thematic than chronological. Each chapter then concludes with an essay on the historiography of the period, showing how interpretations of the period have evolved over time.

Davies appears to presume that the reader will have at least a basic knowledge of British history beforehand. He spends relatively little time chronicling people and events, focusing instead on institutions, ideas and attitudes. This is especially true from the Tudor period onward. He doesn't bother much with Henry VIII and his wives, but has a lot to say about the Acts of Union in 1707 which joined the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain. Similarly there is very little said about the Napoleonic Wars, but much about The Acts of Union in 1800 which created the United Kingdom.

The institutions which receive the most attention are those that have a bearing on Britons' self-image and relationships with Europe. There are, for example, extended treatments of organized athletics and the implementation of the metric system. Relatively little attention is given, by comparison, to such topics as education and health care.

Davies was writing in 1999 at a time when Britain was facing questions fundamental to its identity. Scotland had just been granted its own Parliament, and Wales its own Assembly, leading to the possible (and inevitable, according the the author) breakup of the United Kingdom into four independent nations. The UK was also torn between adopting the Euro and a tighter integration with Europe (both inevitable and desirable per Davies) on the one hand, and continuing its Atlantic partnership as the USA's sidekick on the other. Davies concludes that the United Kingdom is not a nation-state, but rather a dynastic assemblage of nations dominated by its largest member the way (in a far less gentle fashion) Russia dominated the USSR or Serbia dominated Yugoslavia.

The Isles: A History is very well written, often captivating, and full of fascinating detail and valuable insight. It is worth reading even if the author's focus on national identity and European integration isn't to your liking. His intended audience is a person who already has a basic knowledge of British history, so if the topic is entirely new to you some supplementary reading might be advisable. ( )

Whence we came.

Norman Davies does a great job bringing history to life in this book and is very careful to clarify ethnic identities and mindsets amidst the waves of immigration from continental Europe and the migration of peoples within the British Isles. Attaching imaginative names to places for the periods before they came by their modern ones is a great idea and makes the historical context all the more vivid as well as helping discard the cultural baggage associated with place names. After all, discussing history in terms of places which didn't exist at the time distorts historical perspective and confuses our cultural heritage.

I find Davies's non-discriminatory approach to history refreshing. He is as careful to talk up our Celtic legacy (we might think more of them if they'd written stuff down) as he is to belittle the Roman era, pointing out that their occupation led to no lasting legacy but was hyped during our imperial age ('The Glory of the British Empire' and so forth).

Davies covers a vast amount of ground in a very readable way and I think the structure of the book (vignette to set a historical scene, historical detail, literature of the age) works well. The chronological approach is more or less abandoned from the Hanoverian era and replaced by a more thematic approach. My guess is that the author had a remit to limit the book to 1000 pages and there would have been too much ground to cover if he had continued with the same level of detail right up to the modern day. But if you want to find out more about a particular historical period, event or person there are no shortage of books around that will give you all you need.

There's a great emphasis on how closely we have always been tied to Europe and how therefore we should face a future as part of Europe with optimism. Davies is also upbeat about a possible break-up of the UK and regards the reasons by which England and Scotland became united as being redundant in our post-imperial age. These are interesting points but are obviously open to debate.

For someone like me who has largely been ignorant of British and Irish history there is so much treasure here. I constantly had 'wow!' moments and my copy is full of post-it notes with points of interest that I want to follow up. I would thoroughly recommend The Isles to anyone looking for a highly readable single-volume history of these islands. ( )

There is an interesting section in the introduction on library classification systems and the excellent sentence: `Oxford librarians are always on the guard against troublemakers', p.xxxv.

Norman Davies takes us on an exhaustive tour of the English Isles (primarily the one us Yanks call "England") in an attempt to answer a few questions: What is England? What is Brittain? What is the United Kingdom?
Davies begins with Cheddar Man and works his way right up to Margaret Thatcher. This history is laid out in chronolgical order, rather than grouping material by subject. I like this approach, as this allows the history to read like a story. That's what is really is anyway, right?
Davies brings a great sense of humor to what threatens to be a dry subject. At the end of each landmark era, Davies answers this three basic questions, as pertains to that point in time. As this history moves toward the present, the focus becomes more sharp, and Davies addresses this in his forward. Unfortunatley, I found the detail to be a bit much, and I gave up before the end of the 18th century, with quite a bit of book to go. Still, the first 1000 or so pages are well worth the effort.
This brings us to the final point. I began by calling this history "exhaustive." I do not think that was an exageration. This is simply an enourmous book, and will take quite a lot of time to read and digest.
In the end, I enjoyed Davies style enough to pick up "Europe," an equally monstrous popular history of even larger scope. I would strongly recommend this book for anglophiles, or to anyone with a passion for history, and a curiosity about the history of one of the world's great old nations. Fans of U.S. History ought to give this one a look as well. Remember, our founding fathers considered themselves Englishmen, first and formost. ( )

The earlier part of the book emphasizes the confusing and misunderstood nature of the identity of the Isles. Is it the British Isles, Britain, England, the United Kingdom? Davies shows where and when each term arises and how they should be used without anachronism. He focuses on the European dimension of the British monarchy, providing a necessary corrective to the Anglocentric histories of the classroom. However, the book is seriously marred by a large number of factual errors and poor editorial choices. How can a serious history of these islands be written without any reference to the General Strike of 1926 or any serious discussion of the origins of the First World War? What does it say about an author's priorities when there is nothing about appeasement in the 1930s, yet the lyrics of a song by Elton John are reprinted at length?

The last section, supposedly dealing with the history of the entire 20th century, looks hurriedly written, in need of thorough fact-checking, and immersed in the priorities of the late 1990s. It already looks dated - reading it feels like flicking through the opinion pages of an old newspaper. A very disappointing book. ( )