Customer Reviews
Most Helpful
4 out of 5 stars
By
Douglas
on
02-17-14
An interesting and entertaining final volume
The final volume in the history is as good as the first two. By the time the listener is on the 3rd volume Thorne's voice is like that of an old friend. Actually, when I read the blurb about the 3rd volume it mentioned that the narrator was different and I was taken aback because at that point it would have been weird to switch voices. However, the blurb was thankfully inaccurate. The histories of Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill are two of the highlights of the final volume. The history of British rule in India is also fascinating. I was a bit disappointed with the last bit of the book because post-WWII Britain is basically just skimmed over. The author had forewarned us that this would be the case but I had held out hope that he was exaggerating. Alas, Schama was telling the truth. I would have liked to hear more about how Britain dealt with Ireland becoming independent and how it handled the breakup of its empire. I also wanted to hear a more detailed account of Thatcher's history. My biggest disappointment concerned the history of the crown. I was looking forward to learning what it was that changed the crown from being of chief importance to being a ceremonial relic. I wanted to know how things changed so much in so little time but it was never explained or really even touched on. Queen Victoria's reign ended in the early 1900's and by all accounts she was the supreme ruler of Britain and extremely important (the period is named after her after all). In my lifetime Queen Elizabeth II has been irrelevant to all besides tabloid magazine editors. How did that happen? I never learned this. I don't recall King Edward VIII giving up the crown in order to marry a divorced woman being mentioned at all, and if it was it wasn't discussed at any length. I would have liked to hear more about the 2nd half of the 20th century.
Read More
Hide me
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
2 out of 5 stars
By
Pegeen
on
12-31-15
closer in time means more opinion less history
very odd selections of events -- and a very one sided portrait of Edmund Burke -- just one example. Not that he was a perfect paragon but he called the French revolution what it was. Minutia overwhelms the flow. Earlier volumes SO MUCH BETTER than this last volume about more modern times.
Read More
Hide me
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By
Joff
on
02-06-17
great history, great performance
I struggled a bit with all the details about India but it was more than made up for by all the Churchill and Orwell stuff.
Read More
Hide me
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
1 out of 5 stars
By
Kyle Smith
on
01-18-16
Meandering, narrow, irrelevant
Schama really goes off the deep end in this part of his series. While the narration is of course excellent, the actual content is so narrow and small in scale that you really do wonder if this is the same writer as that of the first two parts. Simon abandons the broad, historical perspective of the nation and it's happenings in favour of telling the stories of small irrelevent people , almost as if he is trying to waste your time. A terrible conclusion to an otherwise great series.
Read More
Hide me
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By
Iain
on
09-28-15
Excellent history
This is not a "this happened, then that happened, and finally that over there happened" type of history.
Sure, it covers off on events. But it builds a story about how events, some well known, some not so, all contribute to the history of England. Or Great Britain. Or the British Empire. Or all of the above.
I greatly enjoyed it, the themes, the stories, the characters. A wonderful primer from which you can pick and choose events, people or themes to delve into more deeply.
Well narrated, a great story. Highly recommended.
Read More
Hide me
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By
P
on
08-02-15
Simon Scama is the Master Historian.
Scama once again proved that history does not have to be a deadly dull account accompanied by annoying footnotes.
I lived the events as they unfolded and will listen to it again in the future..
I would definitely recommend it.
Read More
Hide me
1 of 1 people found this review helpful