A History Of England

A History of England (1969) by Keith Feiling – Book Club Associates – Good Condition

Nothing says light recreational reading quite like the entire history of England compressed between two covers.

In A History of England, distinguished historian Keith Feiling takes on the modest little task of explaining how England got from assorted tribes, kings, invasions and dynastic squabbles to the comparatively orderly business of modern government. Along the way there are monarchs behaving badly, wars being started for reasons which probably seemed sensible at the time, religious disagreements of a particularly energetic nature, political scheming, imperial ambitions and enough constitutional tinkering to keep historians employed indefinitely.

Feiling was no purveyor of chirpy historical trivia, so this is very much history from the era when authors expected readers to sit upright, concentrate and remember who everyone was. There are no cartoon Vikings, no amusing boxes headed Did You Know?, and almost certainly no suggestion that Henry VIII can be adequately understood through a six-point list of fun facts. Instead, you get the traditional substance: kings, governments, wars, institutions, personalities and the long, complicated development of England as a nation.

Originally written by one of the leading British historians of his generation, Feiling’s account is broad in scope and confident in tone, offering a sweeping narrative of centuries during which England was invaded, unified, divided, reformed, restored, industrialised, expanded and occasionally persuaded that invading somewhere else might solve whatever problem happened to be occupying Parliament that week.

This 1969 Book Club Associates edition comes from the glorious age of serious household bookshelves, when respectable homes were apparently expected to contain substantial works of history whether anybody actually intended to read them or not. It is the sort of book that looks entirely at home beside an encyclopaedia, a Readers’ Digest atlas and several volumes inherited from somebody’s uncle.

Condition is Good, meaning that it has survived both English history and several decades of British domestic storage with considerably greater success than many of the institutions described within it. It is a used vintage book and may therefore show the usual signs of age and previous ownership, but remains perfectly suitable for reading, reference, shelf decoration or settling an argument about something that happened in 1485.

There is no ISBN, presumably because books once managed to exist without needing a thirteen-digit numerical identity before they were allowed into polite society.

Ideal for history enthusiasts, students, collectors of older historical works, traditionalists who prefer their history delivered without animation, or anyone who has ever wondered how a relatively damp group of islands managed to generate quite so many kings called Edward.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where history is rarely mint, occasionally dusty, and generally much cheaper than experiencing it firsthand.

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