Recommend British History: post-Tudor or

[2curlydogs]

pre Battle of Hastings.

My knowledge of English history is pretty fluent between 1066 and 1603. I've read some on the Stuarts and Cromwell but not enough to really stick.

I tend to do better with biography than a straight history book, but would be agreeable to anything, provided it's quality.

[hopecounts]

Is Queen Elizabeth II too current?
I really enjoyed this biography of her and it covers from Pre-abdication (1936) through current historically as well as her life.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/12722468-elizabeth-the-queen

[2curlydogs]

Jun 21, 2012 13:21:22 GMT -5 hopecounts said:

Is Queen Elizabeth II too current?
I really enjoyed this biography of her and it covers from Pre-abdication (1936) through current historically as well as her life.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/12722468-elizabeth-the-queen

Not too recent. I'd hesitated picking it up based on a few reviews. Like someone mentions the fact that Thatcher is handled in a few pages (11 years as Prime Minister - the first and, so far, only female prime minister - and it's done in a handful of pages? what?).

Is it more...history-history or anecdotal storytelling? Because a history-based biography would be utterly fascinating, given the timeframe she's been queen and the utter upheaval of it.

ETA: Now, if you'd said a biography on William and Kate, I'd totally be side-eyeing you.

[hopecounts]

It is a little hit and miss it definitely gives the history (I.e. discussing the abdication/wwII/etc.) but it is a little spotty on some parts like Thatcher mainly because it doesn't go into the politics as much as the actual events if that makes sense?
For example it talks about thatcher in terms of specific events not details on her politics which is why it's pretty short.

So I shouldn't recommend Kate: the making of a princess

[smock]

Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down, about all the crazies during the English Civil War, is pretty fascinating.

If you're interested in the history of science, there's a ton on 17th century England. I'm about to read James Gleick's biography of Newton and Patricia Fara's Newton: The Making of a Genius is about the 18th century obsession with all things Newton. Also, Laura Snyder's Philosopher's Breakfast Club, about 19th c. British scientists, is a good read, but there's nothing government/monarchy in there, if that's what you're more interested in.

In the fiction realm, have you read Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle? It is so fucking good.