
A History of Britain: Volume 1
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Thorne
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By:
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Simon Schama
About this listen
The story of Britain from the earliest settlements in 3000 BC to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. To look back at the past is to understand the present. In this vivid account of over 4,000 years of British history, Simon Schama takes us on an epic journey which encompasses the very beginnings of the nation's identity, when the first settlers landed on Orkney.
From the successes and failures of the monarchy to the daily life of a Roman soldier stationed on Hadrian's Wall, Schama gives a vivid, fascinating account of the many different stories and struggles that lie behind the growth of our island nation. Simon Schama's major BBC2 series has shown him to be one of our most original and exciting historians.
©2012 Simon Schama (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood.
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Great text; poor narration
- By Richard Yates on 08-03-21
By: Roland Ennos
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The Face of Britain
- The Nation Through Its Portraits
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan, Simon Schama
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Face of Britain by Simon Schama, read by Simon Schama and Roy McMillian. Churchill and his painter locked in a struggle of stares and glares; Gainsborough watching his daughters run after a butterfly; a naked John Lennon five hours before his death. Simon Schama has written a tour de force about British portraits over the centuries.
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What is a portrait?
- By CartoChick on 01-14-20
By: Simon Schama
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The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World
- By: Robert Garland, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Robert Garland
- Length: 24 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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Look beyond the abstract dates and figures, kings and queens, and battles and wars that make up so many historical accounts. Over the course of 48 richly detailed lectures, Professor Garland covers the breadth and depth of human history from the perspective of the so-called ordinary people, from its earliest beginnings through the Middle Ages.
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Tantalizing time trip
- By Mark on 08-21-13
By: Robert Garland, and others
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The History of Scotland
- By: History Nerds, Alastar MacTire
- Narrated by: Graham Mack
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Experience the sweeping saga of Scotland's history in a whole new way with this audiobook narrated by Graham Mack. Through Mack's passionate and eloquent voice, you will be transported to the rugged landscapes and vibrant cities of Scotland, where centuries of history come to life. From the ancient kingdoms of the Picts and Scots to the rise of the clans and the battles for independence, this audiobook covers it all.
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Story telling with emotion
- By Michelle on 04-07-24
By: History Nerds, and others
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Scotland
- A History from Earliest Times
- By: Alistair Moffat
- Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart
- Length: 23 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Covering the Ice Age to the recent Scottish Referendum, the acclaimed historian and author explores the history of the Scottish nation. Focusing on key moments such as the Battle of Bannockburn and the Jacobite risings, Moffat also features other episodes in history that are perhaps less well documented. From prehistoric timber halls to inventions and literature, Moffat's epic explores the drama of battle, change, loss, and innovation interspersed with the lives of ordinary Scottish folk, the men and women who defined a nation.
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Great story Emotionless reading Bad ending
- By S. R. on 02-14-22
By: Alistair Moffat
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The Isles
- A History
- By: Norman Davies
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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Here is the best-selling and controversial history of the British Isles, including Ireland, from the author of Europe: A History. Emphasizing long-standing European connections and positing a possible break-up of the United Kingdom, this agenda-setting work is destined to become a classic.
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Good if you know what you're getting
- By David on 09-12-10
By: Norman Davies
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The Anglo-Saxons
- A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 - 1066
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Grand cities and luxurious villas were deserted and left to crumble, and civil society collapsed into chaos. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters. The Anglo-Saxons traces the turbulent history of these people across the next six centuries. It explains how their earliest rulers fought relentlessly against each other for glory and supremacy, and then were almost destroyed by the onslaught of the vikings.
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"Pretty Good"
- By Stephen on 05-30-21
By: Marc Morris
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1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Paxton
- Length: 3 hrs
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With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
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History brought to life
- By Joshua on 07-10-13
By: Jennifer Paxton, and others
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The American Future
- A History
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In The American Future, historian Simon Schama takes a long look at the multiple crises besetting the United States and asks how these problems look in the mirror of time. In four crucial debates - on wars, religion, race and immigration, and the relationship between natural resources and prosperity - Schama looks back to see more clearly into the future. Full of lost insights, The American Future showcases Schama's acclaimed gift for storytelling, ensuring these voices will be heard again.
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Simon Schama is always entertaining
- By D. Littman on 05-30-09
By: Simon Schama
This is a well written Book.
The real history of England
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Good history, fantastic reading
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Would you listen to A History of Britain: Volume 1 again? Why?
Yes. The information is so packed in there. I finished this a few months ago, and I am afraid I have retained probably less than a 10th of the information.Who was your favorite character and why?
King Alfred the Great. Brilliant.Any additional comments?
Probably written for a British audience. Had the feeling that I was pretending to know what was happening half the time because I got disoriented in time and eras.Intriguing introduction
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dense but interesting
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great story
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great reader, story jumps around
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Schama is one of the great English wordsmiths
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Professor Schama deserves kudos for making history interesting, even in this non-TV version. Though this starts out in prehistoric times of the beginning of civilization, that portion of the book is covered quite briefly. He slows down and goes into more detail when the Romans arrived, naturally, since there are written records from that time period. Those 300 years seem to be a relatively peaceful time and certainly the great building boom bears that out. The later arrival of the Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons, and finally the Normans was much more violent when the land seemed to be the focal point of conflict between various foreign forces and peoples. He does a good job of explaining the development of the history, particularly from a political, i.e. royal perspective. Though it also attempts to help us understand the life of the “civilian” population at times, that may be its weakest area, though it may have made the book much too long to deal with the lives of ordinary people. And one may also criticize its focus on England at the expense of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland since it calls itself “A History of Britain.”
Although at the end of this first book, there was still no united Britain, one of the themes is the events that laid the foundations for the formation of a nation state in the next century.
Much more time was spent on the era after the arrival of the Normans, particularly of the Plantagenet kings (1145 – 1485) and the Tudors (1485 – 1603), a very violent time, at least for royals and other nobles, when the Tower would have quickly filled to capacity were it not for the many beheadings, hangings, and quartering (look that up) that seemed to be the equivalent or reality TV for the middle ages.
But, some of those excesses also set the stage for the evolution of Britain into a constitutional monarchy (over many more centuries) and eventually the experiment in a constitutional democratic republic in the independent American colonies. The Magna Carta (1215) was signed by King John of England to solve a political crisis of his own making and was later ignored many times but kept coming back in modified form to limit the power of the monarchy.
One thing that is ofen ignored in history is the recurrence of anti-Semitism and Professor Schama does not ignore this part of history. He recounts its prevalence in various incidents in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries including massacres in York in 1190 and the Edict of Expulsion issued by Edward I in 1290.
If you have any interest in History, this is a good one to read. I suspect that it won’t offer any new revelations to a scholar, but for someone who just wants to understand without being bored, this is a good start.
Good political history for most of us
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William I, Edward I, Henry II and Beckett, Henry III and Eleanor and the Tudors all get lots of press. Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Chaucer, Shakespeare, the War of the Roses, Richard III, the Crusades and many other aspects of British history are given scant mention.
Thorne does a fine job as narrator, and it is a well written book, with a sly wit, but the subtitle is a bit misleading.
A History of the English Monarchy from 1066-1603
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Excellent history, read surprisingly well.
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