We stand on the shoulders of a legend.....

Rodska is the only Narrator with the voice and cadence to carry this of he lends weight and gravitas to the words of in my opinion the greatest statesman of the 20th century of any nation bar non. The best series of books ever written about little old England, Britain, The British Isles, Great Britain and not one but two empires.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Battles, Battles and more Battles

Those who already understand English history will be able to just enjoy the eloquent, fine writing in this book.

For me, I'm only a beginner in the subject and I really needed diagrams, maps and charts to understand what was going on. I wanted to understand WHY things came about, what was in the minds of the people? I was looking for an analysis. This book mainly just gives us a blow by blow account of the battles between politicians, and the battles between armies.

Having now struggled through 3 volumes, I plan to do the same with volume IV.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

Wars and party politics told so well, but...

A rivetting and flowing story, with little room for anything but the revolutionary wars. Not the complete history, then, but essential and accomplished. Also, casts light on Winston. Read it.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Insightful

Superb insight from WS Churchill as to how the spread of the English speaking people have developed the world today.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great story nicely presented

Churchill can be somewhat pompous but his grasp on history and his ability to effectively convey the important details and narrative and construct meaning from it shines through.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

The Wars of Revolution

Churchill continues his histories, from the Glorious Revolution up to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. much more interested in the battles and revolution of the age, certain events are covered in passing (Act of Union is mentioned in a summary of Queen Anne); causes of the French Revolution are summarised in 'great tomes have been written on the causes, suffice to say the political machinery did not represent the people' and most rigidly
egrigiously the Industrial Revolution is covered by oblique references like Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was published.

Churchill is far more interested in the so called 'Great Men' of history and names are only mentioned in reference to these figures that dominate the narrative. As Queen Anne ascends the throne the narrative pivots entirely to Marlborough (a descendant of Churchill) and the monarchy is rarely referenced. Extolling the virtues of his ancestor Churchill goes a little fast in calling his military achievements 'unequalled in the annuals of war'.

The change in focus from Monarchy to Parliament, the creation of the office of Prime Minister and Europe/ America's struggle for political reform is discussed well and military leaders, particularly the aforementioned Marlborough; Clive of India; Generals of the American War of Independence; Napolean and Wellington are given plenty of depth.

This is the shortest period of time covered in one of the volumes yet and still feels as though a lot of details are missed, but with the detail shown in the wars of the time its definitely worth exploring.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Audio Problems

Although this is a fundamentally interesting book, it has a jarring and crackling audio which ruins the experience. Churchill also seems to have written in a far too politically biased manner which damages the educational reliability of this book. He constantly condemns the Whig party whilst praising the Tories and seems to have some particular favourite politicians who he is unbalanced in portraying. If taken with a pinch of salt it is a decent sweeping History but it is let down by the quality of the recording.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful