Island Stories: An Unconventional History of Britain

by David Reynolds

Overview

This history of Britain set in a global context for our times offers a new perspective on how the rise and fall of an empire shaped modern European politics.
When the British voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the country's future was thrown into doubt. So, too, was its past. The story of British history is no longer a triumphalist narrative of expanding global empire, nor one of ever-closer integration with Europe. What is it now?
In Island Stories, historian David Reynolds offers a multi-faceted new account of the last millennium to make sense of Britain's turbulent present. With sharp analysis and vivid human detail, he examines how fears of decline have shaped national identity, probes Britain's changing relations with Europe, considers the creation and erosion of the "United Kingdom," and reassesses the rise and fall of the British Empire. Island Stories is essential reading for anyone interested in global history and politics in the era of Brexit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541646919
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	03/24/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David Reynolds is professor of international history at Christ's College, Cambridge. A fellow of the British Academy, he is the multiple prizewinning author of eleven books, including the highly acclaimed America, Empire of Liberty. Many of his history films for the BBC are now available on Netflix.

Table of Contents

Introduction: An Unconventional History 1

1 Decline 13

2 Europe 57

3 Britain 109

4 Empire 161

5 Taking Control of Our Past 211

Acknowledgments 247

Notes 249

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

"A concise, elegant, and lucid revisiting of key themes in British history in the light of Brexit."—Fintan O'Toole, Guardian

A witty and revealing look at long-term patterns in British history—Kirkus Reviews

"[An] incisive survey. . . . [Reynolds's] tour de force through the centuries is aimed at one overarching question that both sides of the Brexit chasm would do well to address: What historical narrative might serve in future as a source of identity, suited to bring together a deeply divided country."—Financial Times

"This is a splendid book: a clear, well-written, and highly stimulating account of the flaws in our understanding of Britain's past."—Literary Review

From the Publisher

01/31/2020

Reynolds (international history, Christ's Coll., Cambridge Univ.) has written an important work containing a series of histories and—and sometimes myths—about the decline of Great Britain's global power over the last several hundred years. He notes that, for both former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and current Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council Jacob Rees-Mogg, the failed effort to regain the Suez Canal from Egypt in 1956 was a "crucial moment in Britain's decline." Decline is the major theme throughout this scholarly, yet still highly readable, text. Reynolds effectively explains Britain's ambivalent relationship with Europe, the role that imperial power played in British history, and how today's Brexit fits into to Britain's past history. Also discussed is the relationship among the counties in the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. There are many stories of British history here, and Reynolds weaves them all together extremely well. VERDICT With this well-documented and engaging, narrative, readers will gain a better understanding of the nuanced histories of this island nation.—Herbert E. Shapiro, Boca Raton, FL

Library Journal

Philip Stevens admirably narrates this often acerbic, quite witty, and always trenchant audiobook. His smooth style amplifies the accomplishment of Reynolds’s revisionist text, which argues that no matter what timeframe one examines—the past, present, or future—Brexit has put the archipelago of islands that is the UK in a muddle. He almost gleefully handles the ironic tone that pervades this takedown of the British penchant for exceptionalism in their histories and their longing for the old-time maritime days. Stevens's high British intonation shapes the author’s edgy toppling of myth and mythmakers by examining Churchill’s racist attitude toward the Commonwealth and Theresa May’s mishandling of Brexit and by dismissing Boris Johnson as more entertainer than leader. Reynolds asserts that Great Britain needs to look at its history through new lenses. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

Philip Stevens admirably narrates this often acerbic, quite witty, and always trenchant audiobook. His smooth style amplifies the accomplishment of Reynolds’s revisionist text, which argues that no matter what timeframe one examines—the past, present, or future—Brexit has put the archipelago of islands that is the UK in a muddle. He almost gleefully handles the ironic tone that pervades this takedown of the British penchant for exceptionalism in their histories and their longing for the old-time maritime days. Stevens's high British intonation shapes the author’s edgy toppling of myth and mythmakers by examining Churchill’s racist attitude toward the Commonwealth and Theresa May’s mishandling of Brexit and by dismissing Boris Johnson as more entertainer than leader. Reynolds asserts that Great Britain needs to look at its history through new lenses. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

2020-01-07
A British historian takes a long view of events that are now rattling the Isles.

"The British…seem like a people who have done things the same way for centuries and can be relied on for stability and common sense," writes Reynolds (International History/Christ's Coll., Cambridge; The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century, 2015, etc.), which explains why Brexit has seemed so inexplicable to so many people. In many ways, however, it is of a piece with previous episodes that stretch back at least 1,000 years, not simply in tensions between the U.K. and European alliances, but also in Britain's relationships with the principalities of old. The isolation that logically results from living on an island was reinforced when Britain had to go it alone after the fall of France in 1940 until forging alliances with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which Reynolds provocatively writes, "such was the extent of Germany's early success in 1940 that the Führer had, in effect, called the superpowers into existence to redress the balance of the Old World." The U.K. was not among these superpowers, leading to a sense of "declinism" that became a powerful counterargument to Britain's previous championing of what the author deems an "ideology of freedom [that] was real at the time and has exerted a lasting influence." With declinism, marked by episodes such as Margaret Thatcher's being outplayed by continental colleagues such as François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, has come another spate of that going-it-alone resignation. Reynolds peppers an always interesting text with side notes on things such as the relative lack of much of a dent, in terms of DNA, of the Norman conquest on the British Isles. He also offers some nice snark about some of the current players on the historical stage, among them Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, who "seemed even less qualified for his job than May was for hers."

A witty and revealing look at long-term patterns in British history.

Kirkus Reviews