Fortunately for me I read about ten books on Henry VII, his six wives and society of the period, so the ending of this book, takes me up to very close to that period of British history. August 13, 2022: A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume 1, The Birth of Britain, by Winston S. Churchill (Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1956) This book took me 10 days to read. My average read is one to two days, three max but there are a few reasons for taking so long on this great book. TL;DR: The book succeeds due to Churchill's strong narrative, accessible style and intense focus on political development.

The second volume – The New World – explores the emergence of Britain on the world stage and a turbulent period at home. The second volume details Britain's relationship to the cultural Renaissance and the religious Reformation that gripped Europe in the sixteenth century. He proceeds to describe the English Civil War in the seventeenth century and Britain's brief experiment with Republicanism. He then details the efforts of King James II to restore Catholicism to Britain and his subsequent defeat at the Battle of the Boyne by the Protestant William of Orange, in 1688. On the other hand, I admit some of the things he wrote did make my modern eyes wince. The warning signs were there from the very second chapter, the account of the Bouadicea rebellion: "No less", according to Tactitus, "than seventy thousand citizens and allies were slain" in these three cities. . . . This is probably the most horrible episode which our Island has known. We see the crude and corrupt beginnings of a higher civilisation blotted out by the ferocious uprisings of the native tribes. Still, it is the primary right of men to die and kill for the land they live in, and to punish with exceptional severity all members of their own race who have warmed their hands at the invaders' hearth. Well, that's nice. It really says it all, doesn't it? The stupid British natives were too bloodthirsty and resisted the loving embrace of the civilised empire come to invade them, but it's OK because everyone has the right to butcher race traitors. Of the Tasmanian Genocide off Australia he mentions only that the native tribes met a "tragic" end and "were extinct by the beginning of the twentieth century". He can't quite bring himself to say they were exterminated by the British in the only successful genocide in history. In fact, of the entire period of colonialism he remarks: The nineteenth century was a period of purposeful, progressive, enlightened, tolerant civilisation. The stir in the world arising from the French Revolution, added to the Industrial Revolution unleashed by the steam-engine and many key-inventions, led inexorably to the democratic age. . . . At the same time the new British Empire or Commonwealth of Nations was based upon government by consent, and the voluntary association of autonomous states under the Crown. Suffice to say, the fourth volume in particular is stuffed full of some -- how can I put it? -- outdated opinions. As a final example, when discussing early trade unionism in America Churchill notes that the organisations attracted "a host of fanatics ranging from suffragists to single-taxers".

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Roberts's other great enemy is Europe. Britain, acting as 'an abusive parent' to the Commonwealth, entered the former European Economic Community in 1972, under the 'moral cowardice' of Heath, in 'the dour, drab defeatist Seventies'. His subtext seems to be that British foreign policy should return to a version of the 'splendid isolation' of 1900, but in partnership with American global isolationism. A surprise was how hostile, land grabbing for the purpose of stealing jewels and anything of value, and simply cruel, were the Vikings. I had never read much of their conquests until now. And of course, had to stop and print out maps of the travels and conquests of the Vikings all over Europe.

Sir Winston S. Churchill has been rightfully penned as the “Last Lion” (William Manchester) and if this is the case then certainly the “First Lion” would have to be King Henry II (the “Coeur de Lion” is King Richard I). King Henry II legacy is lasting in terms of organization and of the continuance of the British Commonwealth today. The masterpiece of Sir Winston S. Churchill work lays the foundation for the persons who are interested to pursue new interest along old lines – I personally have discovered many topics of interest now and I wish to study deeper, and learn in a fashion that is both eager and willing in the new forthcoming journey of our collective History.A History of the English-Speaking Peoples is a four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies and possessions throughout the world, written by Winston Churchill, covering the period from Caesar's invasions of Britain (55 BC) to the end of the Second Boer War (1902). [1] It was started in 1937 and finally published 1956–1958, delayed several times by war and his work on other texts. The volumes have been abridged into a single-volume, concise edition. Beginning with Marlborough's victory at Blenheim in 1704 and ending with Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, Churchill recounts Britain's rise to world leadership over the course of the eighteenth century. In this volume Churchill provides an excellent illustration of his unique literary voice, together with an introduction to his thoughts on the forces that shape human affairs.

My previous study has concentrated on the religious history of Britain ("church history" in seminary, and personal reading since then). I was a bit surprised at what seemed a minimal treatment of that critical and defining aspect of Britain's history. The reinforcement and constructive application of these common conceptions - upon which so much of 20th Century history hinged - would continue to the very end of Churchill's life and career. Indeed, Churchill's aspirations and anxieties about this 'special relationship' are encapsulated in the title of his last published book of speeches in 1961, The Unwritten Alliance.This first of four volumes of Churchill’s long history of the English (up until the mid-twentieth century) is essentially a tale of murder and mayhem. The characters may have worn fancy clothing and lived in castles and other mansions, but their behavior, as reported here (perhaps inadvertently), was more suggestive of primitive tribalism. I have rarely seen a book of history so deeply personal and analytical at the same time. By reading this 4-volume book, one gets a glimpse of Winston Churchill's intricate thinking pattern. As one of craftiest politicians of the 20th Century, he led a deeply pacifist British public to rise up against the Nazi's; he predicted America's downfall in Vietnam; he also infamously forced America into WWI at the cost of more than one thousand civilian lives aboard RMS Lusitania. This book does not seek to rival the works of professional historians. It aims rather to present a personal view on the processes whereby English-speaking peoples throughout the world have achieved their distinctive position and character. I write about the things in our past that appear significant to me and I do so as one not without some experience of historical and violent events in our own time. I use the term 'English-speaking peoples' because there is no other that applies both to the inhabitants of the British Isles and to those independent nations who derive their beginnings, their speech, and many of their institutions from England, and who now preserve, nourish, and develop them in their own ways."