“The English and Their History” was written by Robert Tombs, professor of French history at Cambridge University. It is an enjoyable read and covers 2,000 years of history in 1,024 pages. Tombs is a fluent, engaging and opinionated writer. The book is crammed full of interesting information but it does not read like a textbook. Tombs tends to focus on the positive aspects of English history and usually gives the English the benefit of the doubt. Tombs often challenges traditional myths and urban legends.
Tombs is a proud Englishman and states that: “By the standards of humanity as a whole, England over the centuries has been among the richest, safest and best-governed places on earth, as periodical influxes of people testify.” England has ruled itself for most of its history. It has never lost a war at home since 1066, or been occupied, or suffered a revolution on the scale of those in France in 1789, Russia in 1917 or Germany in 1918. The English, he thinks, have been profoundly fortunate. From the ninth century onwards, it has had a distinctive language, culture, and religion, and has been more prosperous than most of its neighbors. Tombs believes that the English over the past 400 years can take some credit “for their economic and technological labors; for their long pioneering of the rule of law, of accountability and representation in government, of religious toleration and of civil institutions; and for their determined role in the defeat of modern tyrannies.”
Tombs begins with the Roman invasion of Britain. Aethelston became the first English king in 937 after defeating the Vikings and uniting the country. The Norman Conquest of 1066 “annihilated England’s ruling class.” He claims that only eight of the 18 kings who ruled between 1066 and 1485 died peacefully in their beds. The Black Death in 1348 reduced the population by more than half. He claims that England fared better than its neighbors in its aftermath. A scarcity of labor and the accumulated legal rights of peasants brought an end to serfdom some 400 years sooner than in most other parts of Europe. Tombs claims that the England of the middle ages was generally peaceful and prosperous. The English avoided further invasion, and the domestic fighting can be compared to gang warfare as it mostly involved the ruling class and their henchmen. The Reformation brought religious violence, though nothing on the scale of Europe’s Thirty Years War, in which eight million died. Religious tensions continued to influence English life for 250 years after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, but they seldom resulted in violence. The English prided themselves on moderation and rejected extremism.
English politics in the 18th century was split between the Whigs, who supported American independence, and a Tory government under Lord North that did not. Tombs argues. “To the Whigs, we owe the principle — Magna Carta restated in modern form — that rulers must obey the law and that legitimate authority requires the consent of the people. From the Tories came the principle — fundamental to any political order — that people have no right to rebel against a government because they disagree with it.” Tombs believes that parts of the Declaration of Independence’s indictment against George III are remarkably like Parliament’s accusations against Charles I (“an unlimited and tyrannical power”). Parliament executed Charles I in 1649. Tombs argues that Shakespeare’s depictions of flawed and fallible monarchs entered the national consciousness.
Tombs claims that pre-industrial English wages were already the highest in the world—almost 12 grams of silver per day and rising fast for an ordinary London worker in 1775, versus about nine and stagnating in Amsterdam, under four and dropping in Vienna and Florence, a stagnant three in Beijing, and only one in Delhi. He argues that reducing labor costs was one reason why industrialization started in England rather than other then-technologically advanced regions. He argues that cheap labor in France and India ensured that there was no need to invest in spinning jennies and other labor-saving devices.
Victory in 1815 over France left the London government ruling “the first global hegemon in history” – a role that only one other power, the US, has ever occupied. Tombs argues that England was ahead of the game compared to other European countries: “no country became so early and so rapidly urban, industrial, rich, (semi-) democratic and intellectually pluralist.” He claims that "during the 19th century, Britain was more outward-looking than any nation before, more involved in its everyday life with more of the world.” Compared with other European nations, England was pre-eminent in politics and economics, although not in the arts. The two-chamber parliament in London, the accountability of ministers to parliament, parliamentary control over government spending, constitutional monarchy, collective cabinet responsibility, and an independent judiciary were emulated across Europe during the next hundred years. The industrial revolution which started in England was copied too.
When it comes to WW1, Tombs argues that subsequent generations have tended to see that generation of soldiers as duped victims. Revisionist historians have often maintained that WW1 was an unnecessary war. They claim that the British people were naive and excited about going to war, and they believed that it would be all over by Christmas. Tombs claims this is wrong and unfair. At the time, the British believed they were opposing German militarism and he explains why going to war made sense. Most people knew it would be a long war and it could be disastrous for Britain. The British government concluded that the Germans were not interested in finding a peaceful solution and wanted a war. The British believed that if Germany had defeated France, Britain would be left standing alone and vulnerable to any future aggression. The British concluded that it was necessary to support its allies, France, Russia, and Belgium, even though the country was unprepared for war. Tombs makes clear that the upper classes were patriotic and played their part. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith declared war in 1914 and his oldest son was killed in action in 1916. The current Queen lost an uncle in the conflict. The country's educated elite also suffered. Many writers and musicians joined up. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis both served in the trenches, as did four future prime ministers (i.e., Churchill, Attlee, Eden, and Macmillan).
The empire may be gone, but its legacy of language and law, and political systems endures from California to Calcutta. For Tombs, the empire had “contradictory consequences that include the bad, the good and the indifferent.” To those who see it as nefarious, he counters that the “real alternatives to British hegemony would probably have been conquests by others, or perhaps global anarchy.” By about 1200 slavery in the British Isles was non-existent. England's colonies in the Americas introduced slavery in the 1600s even though it was illegal at home. Britain outlawed the international slave trade in 1807 and until 1870, its navy had a squadron permanently based in West Africa to stop slave ships from leaving the continent. In 1834, all 800,000 slaves in Britain’s colonies were emancipated by an act of Parliament. Tombs is skeptical of claims that the industrial revolution, and thus English prosperity, was the result of imperialism and slavery. Tombs claimed that even at its peak the empire never contributed more than 6% to Britain’s GDP. Tombs states that few people in England were ever directly involved in the empire, it was about 1.5% of the population, including the soldiers, missionaries, and their families.
Tombs claims that the British have been worried about national decline since the 1880s. After 1917 the US rose to global supremacy and by the 1940s, American wealth and power dwarfed that of Britain. Like every European state, it was inevitably consigned to second-tier status. He argues that the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 is “the most moving saga in our history”, and Allied victory over Germany in 1945 would have been impossible without Britain’s refusal to sue for peace, her control of the seas, her planning of the D-Day landings and her aerial bombing campaign. Much of the problem with England’s self-image in recent times has been in adapting to the rest of the world catching up.
England’s relationship with Europe looms large in the book. England is located on the fringes of Europe, and its rulers have been pre-occupied with national security since Julius Caesar's failed invasions in 55 and 54 BC. The English have beaten off most European invaders since then. Europe has often seemed more of a threat than a friend. Most of the country's greatest heroes and rulers have usually been involved in defending the country from European invasion (e.g., Churchill, Nelson, Wellington, Elizabeth I). Tombs argues that Britain also had a very different experience in the 20th century to other EU countries. It was not one of the aggressors, it was not invaded or occupied, and it remained a democracy. The British relied on help from outside Europe to survive the war. Its EU neighbors had either been invaded, claimed neutrality, or were allied with Germany. As a result, its people have a different perspective on Europe than Germany, France. Ireland or Italy. This book provides a useful guide to the English people and their history.
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Robert Tombs has written what people like to call a "magisterial" history of England
Robert Tombs has written what people like to call a "magisterial" history of England, starting with a few pages about pre-England (what he refers to as dreamtime; England before it was known as England) and then taking up the story in detail from about 600 AD onwards. He covers all the major events, manages to add interesting and enlightening anecdotes at every point, demolishes many myths and misconceptions, and yet does not sound polemical or aggressive while doing it. He is clearly proud of being English and has a generally conservative slant on things, so the kind of people who think Howard Zinn was a great historian will find much to complain about, but then again, they always do. I personally found it well written, detailed, fun, enlightening, and generally fair. Highly recommended.
Top reviews from other countries
Pranab Chatterjee
The book runs into one thousand pages. Let me finish it first before I can make any comments.
Reviewed in India on February 19, 2024Young
Even good for non-native English speaker
Reviewed in Germany on November 17, 2020