Presumably, there were high expectations for this, coming from a historian of Schama's stature, but I have to agree with many of the reader comments that the book is a vast disappointment. He starts out badly, with the irrelevance (at least to this book, as it covers "Britain" only to 1600) of two pages on the coronation of Elizabeth II. It then proceeds to a chronicle of the monarchy and nobility, with hardly a glance at anyone or anything below them. Schama professes early on (between the coronation and Churchill's funeral apparently) to have been an avid reader of Fernand Braudel, E. P. Thompson, Marc Bloch, and Christopher Hill, but if this work is any indication he has taken nothing from them of their disdain for the "great man" theory of history. It's hard to figure out his intended audience here--certainly not professional historians or students, and even those in need of a nice coffee-table tome will not be very impressed by this somewhat thin volume. Minus the profuse illustrations, there are barely 300 pages of text to cover "Britain" (actually England) to 1600. The book is a TV tie-in with the BBC series (shown here on the History Channel) and it bears all the marks of a commercially-driven product. Schama does write well, but it is clear he is not a specialist in English history. I would think Davies' recent "The Isles" or the older Oxford History of Britain would be a better chioce for most readers.

I have always appreciated Schama's entertaining and instructive writing as well as his meticulous attention to historical detail. However, A HISTORY OF BRITAIN is NOT of the caliber of his other books about European history including CITIZENS, EMBARASSEMENT OF RICHES, or PATRIOTS. In the past, Schama's books have offered a wealth of information about the lives of common folk and the times in which they lived. Not so this book, which is nothing more than a pathetic imitation of the series Alison Weir has been writing about British royalty.

At first glance the book appears to be a survey text for use in junior high school as there is nothing challenging about the text. Although the book has been advertised as "covering the history of Britain from 3500 B.C. to 1603 A.D." the first 4500 years are covered in 60 odd pages. By the second chapter, we are at the Norman invasion. Probably the most irritating feature of the book is the lack of a comprehensive geneology chart of the British royalty which seems to be it's main focus.

This glossy volume was apparently created as a complement to the History Channel show of the same name as it contains many of same illustrations, portraits and maps. The History Channel version of the story will undoubtedly become a DVD and the book will probably prove useful for following up something you note from the tv show as it contains a pretty good bibiliography.

This book is the companion to the BBC / History Channel series of the same title. This should be an immediate clue as to the type of book this is. It is not a detailed reference book on British history. The book contains some text quoted verbatim in the TV show, which should give you an idea of how the narrative is presented.

Schama sets out to tell the story of how Britain became the nation it is today. He does not, he is keen to point out, subscribe to stuff of Shakespearean legend, that British history was an inevitable expression of a single, perpetual British identity. The history of Britain, Schama contends, is characterised not by continuity but by conflict and flux.

The book is well illustrated, reads well and is never boring, but I did find the discussion of some royal conflicts confusing. Because many of the major players in these power struggles shared both lineage and names, it is sometimes difficult to tell, without pausing to work it out, exactly which Henry or Edward is being referred to. A family tree of English kings is presented at one point (a page I went back to a few times) but it only covers a few kings (William I to Henry III).

Schama's TV show has been widely praised here in the UK and has been credited (along with other popular historians such as David Starkey) with bringing about resurgence of interest in Britain's history and cultural heritage.

If the term "popular historians" is ringing alarm bells you probably don't want this book. As I said, it is not a historian's textbook. But it is a concise and well written introduction to the people and events that shaped the destiny of the British nation, and indeed the world.