billyliar

Excruciating in its tediousness!

Reviewed: 09-09-24

The author takes a fascinating period in English history and manages to bury the narrative in a wealth of minutiae and irrelevant facts. I had to stop 5 and a half chapters in as by this point the author hadn't even begun to discuss the Revolt itself. However, she had listed the range of vegetables that 14th century townsfolk might grow in their garden, discussed the thickness and composition of city walls and dealt at length with the range of fabrics that might be hung in the houses of the rich. For your own sanity, avoid this excruciatingly dull book!! Awful.

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Pro-Royal, anti-rebel bias undermines the work.

Reviewed: 23-07-21

I enjoyed this book for sure. Unlike some reviewers I have no problem with the author indulging in moments of speculation, to keep the narrative flowing, where these imaginings simply add colour and drama. This is to be expected in what is a novelistic and popular telling of the story. This is not, nor is it meant to be, a scholarly work. Rather, a romping good tale. It largely succeeds on these terms.

What is irritating, is when creative license simply serves Jones' political prejudices. In discussing the uprising too often he attributes benign motives to King Richard and established authority - while assuming the very worst of the rebels. They are described as 'blood thirsty', 'demagogic' and 'arrogant' in the latter stages of the book when all objectivity is abandoned. We are also led to see John Ball as a power-hungry madman and heretic, and Wat Tyler is painted as a rather cartoonish, strutting villain who deserved his downfall for displaying bad manners in front of the King. It's no wonder David Starkey has championed this work. It is, ultimately, a profoundly conservative critique of the uprising.

A more sympathetic Epilogue on the meaning and legacy of 1381 does restore balance somewhat. But not entirely. This story has been better told by writers more instinctively on the side of the unwashed and oppressed. If that describes you, there is certainly pleasure to be had here - but be prepared to grit your teeth and shout occasionally!

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4 people found this helpful

Excellent overview. Short but learned

Reviewed: 09-07-21

Despite its relative brevity, this is no Brexit-era cash-in work on the Irish border. Or more accurately, the Irish-British border. Fair to all traditions, condensing considerable scholarship, this is a must-have survey. Especially for those new to the history. Good narration as well.

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1 person found this helpful

Vintage partridge. He's back on form with this.

Reviewed: 05-10-20

Very funny dip into the mental universe of one of the best comic characters ever. Demented, touching, tragic, absurd, ridiculous. It's all these things. And many laugh out loud moments. Be careful listening while driving!

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Magisterial account

Reviewed: 15-08-20

Fantastic coverage of all aspects of the civil war. The presenter presents competing perspectives and interpretations giving listeners a real sense of key debates. The political, social and military dimensions are all covered thoroughly. The first two i personally find most interesting so I admit to skipping some of the battle accounts. This is possible as each lecture is a relatively self-contained episode. Excellent.

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A good listen - with caveats

Reviewed: 15-05-20

An ‘enjoyable’ and engaging listen - if these terms are appropriate. Students of ‘the Troubles’, and indeed anyone who came of age in the 1970s, will find much here to appreciate. The events are very much set in the wider context of the day and the author gives a very good sense of time and place. I can see why the work is in the process of being adapted by a screenwriter. In short, I would recommend the book. However, with a few caveats..

For listeners of a left-leaning or Irish nationalist/Republican persuasion the author’s unconscious prejudices and biases can be a bit jarring. Northern Ireland is always ‘the Province’ or ‘Ulster’, terms most centrist journalists ditched a long time ago. Similarly, there is a frequent conflation of England and the UK, and the sense of entitlement of both in the frequent reference to ‘the Mainland’. Another irritation is the author’s use of somewhat Alan Partridge-meets-Andy McNab turns of phrase. For instance, IRA bombs are described as becoming “increasingly lethal” (increasingly?), while “gallant” police officers “take immediate command of the situation” and are engaged in a “deadly game of cat and mouse” with the enemy. For me this was all a bit wince-inducing and I struggled to get past it. I’m glad I did though as it’s a worthy effort and this is the only full-length book on this very important episode in recent British/Irish political history.

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5 people found this helpful

Deeply immersive listen

Reviewed: 30-04-20

Fantastic account, weaving together many strands of the so-called Troubles - with a particular focus on the IRA's practice of 'disappearing' suspected informers. Framing the book is a sympathetic and humane story of the lives of Delores Price and Jean McConville. The author uses the fate of these two individuals to meditate on profound questions for those active in the Republican Movement. Namely, whether its operations against civilians were war crimes, questions of guilt and atonement, and whether the Good Friday Agreement represented defeat for the IRA. On the latter point, the book conveys the hostility to Gerry Adams felt by those Republicans, previously led by Adams, who are opposed to the peace process. For many figures, such as Price herself, their past sacrifices - and crimes - have been rendered utterly pointless by what they see as the former Sinn Fein leader's capitulation on partition. This sense of futility is made all the worse by Adams' repeated denials of his IRA membership and his own role in ordering killing operations. The narrator is superb and his arresting and sensitive voice makes for an immersive listen.

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An excellent account-but hardly a 'new history'.

Reviewed: 26-03-19

This is a great starting point for those unfamiliar with the great body of specialist work on the Holocaust from writers such as Browning, Kershaw, Marrus, Gerlach and Longerich. It is however more than a little disingenuous - perhaps even somewhat arrogant - for the author to claim this is a 'new history' as it is really a synthesis of the ideas and work of others, supplemented with some oral testimony garnered by the author (much of which is taken from his BBC series, the Nazis, A Warning from History). Thus, on questions such as Hitler's role, whether the Nazis conceived the Holocaust in a 'single momentous decision' , or whether it simply evolved through a process of 'cumulative radicalisation', Rees offers not one original revelation and merely supports the 'moderate functionalist' position on Nazi Jewish policy and decision-making that is now the historical consensus. Consequently, one wonders what the aforementioned specialist historians will have made of Rees's hyperbolic claims for the work's originality. Nevertheless, this is still a worthy book offering analysis as well as a narrative of events and as such will be great for undergraduate students and the general reader who is looking for an immersive single volume overview of the Holocaust.

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