| | REFERENCE BOOKS
HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Introduction All these books can be purchased on-line via Amazon and delivered to your door.
Herewith a list of books to learn more about the subjects outlined on this web site. Books which were used as references have been marked with a asterix*. The majority of books listed have been written in the last decade of the last century (with some obvious exceptions) and hence we can enjoy:
- Their modern easy-reading style.
- The relatively unbiased views of the authors. Remember 50 years ago it was difficult for English writers and teachers to admit English atrocities and failures, particularly in regard to human rights, kings and queens and religion.
- The last few decades have seen huge advances in archaeology and dating techniques making older books less accurate in many regards.
Jump to books about...... History becomes more alive when well supported by clear maps of the period. The three books which follow are history books in themselves even though the text is only there to more fully explain the map. All vital reference and entertainment books of the highest quality.
Books of Maps
| The Times History of the World |  | | Author editors: Geoffery Barraclough and Richard Overy | | Richard Overy is Professor of Modern History at Kings Collage, University of London. This coffee table book is big at 11 inches by 14 inches with 300 pages of maps plus references and bibliography. |
| The Times History of London |  | | Author editor: Hugh Clout | | Hugh Clout is professor of history at University College London. With over 300 magnificent and detailed maps this coffee table book traces the history of London from the beginnings with the Romans through to the present day. Any visitor or any body interested in this historic city will find this book fascinating. |
| "The Times" Atlas of European History |  | | | | Members of the following universities contributed to this coffee table book of some 250 maps of Europe spanning 3000 years:- Oxford, Cambridge, London, Exeter and Ohio State University USA. The maps make it clear for example, how the Norman kings in England were also ruling large tracts of France and how the Muslim Ottomans were blocking the Christian trade routes to the East. |
A list of books written in a modern easy to read style, by eminent historians briefly covering the whole of English and related history.
| Concise History of England |  | | Author: F E Halliday | | An overview of the History of England from Stonehenge to the present day described in 225 pages with over 230 illustrations. Easy bed time or holiday reading. |
| The Isles |  | | Author: Norman Davies. | | Norman Davies is an Oxford University historian tutored when an undergraduate by an earlier eminent historian H.A.L. Fisher. This is a must read to put English History in the context of Wales, Scotland and Ireland. |
| A Short History of Ireland |  | | Author: Richard Killeen | | English readers must have a working knowledge of Irish History from an Irish perspective, a country which England tried to rule for almost 1000 years. This 60 page pocket book does just that and is packed with helpful illustrations. |
| Of Irish Ways |  | | Author: Mary Murray DeLaney. | | The Irish do not think like the English. Read about it from a thinking Irish mind. |
| Scotland, a Concise History. |  | | Author: Fitzroy Maclean. | | Scotland was never conquered by the Romans and gave the English continuous trouble until King James 4th of Scotland became King James 1st of England about 400 years ago. For a long time Scotland had allegiances to Catholic France and Ireland to Catholic Spain. Read all about it. |
Book suggestions dealing with specific periods, people or subjects. 50 YEARS AGO | War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbroke |  | | Author: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke | | Quote, Churchill on Alanbrooke. “When I thump the table and push my face towards him, what does he do? He thumps the table harder and glares back at me!” Quote, Alanbrooke on Churchill. “”He known no details, talks absurdities and makes my blood boil.” Ed This is a must for anybody interested in the detail of this terrible war by the top English strategist. But take a month off to read it. |
| The Duchess of Windsor Revealed | | | Author: Michael Block | | This is a very relevant book to read in to-days environment in stuffy old England trying to retain good Christian morals. This book is not about Princess Margaret or the beautiful and vivacious Princess Diana or even Prince Charles’ mistress Camilla Parker Bowles. Here we go back 50 years to a period only the very old timers can remember, to read about how an American lady, Wallis Simpson a divorcee, wreaked havoc with the English Monarch of the time, King Edward V111. Edward, perhaps the most eligible bachelor in the world at the time, King of the still mighty British Empire fell in love with American divorcee Wallis. The British Government in 1936 would not allow the King, head of the Church of England, to marry a divorcee and the King choose to abdicate in favour of his reluctant younger brother, Albert, renamed George VI when he became King. Author Michael Block, lawyer and assistant to the Duchess of Windsor’s French Lawyer tells this story and answers some of the intriguing questions like:- Why was this woman so attractive to men, why did her birth go unrecorded and why perhaps in some ways she was not a woman at all? “Read all about it”. Over 200 pages with a new family snap (photo) almost every page. |
150 YEARS AGO
| Queen Victoria |  | | Author: Christopher Hibbert. | | The English Queen of the largest empire in the world, Empress of India, married a German as the only suitable Protestant male the British Government could find. Vital reading and a master piece. |
200 YEARS AGO
| The Age of Napoleon |  | | Author: J. Christopher Herold. | | Many in England see Napoleon as being just a nuisance to the English. Yes he was but he did a lot of good things in Europe as the leader who rose from the ashes of the French revolution particularly for human rights. |
300 YEARS AGO
500 YEARS AGO | The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart England |  | | Author: John Morill | | Perhaps the most important part of English history when the ruling family broke away from the dominant Roman Catholic Christian Church which set the Kings and Queens on the path of forming the largest Empire in the world. The world at that time still looks Medieval and Bloody to readers to-day. The most authoritative general history of the Tudor and Stewart dynasties ever published but still very readable. Exceptional illustrations. |
| Henry VIII King and Court |  | | Author: Alison Weir. | Alison Weir’s latest and best book of the Tudor Period. You know:-Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I, Religious revolt, finding America.
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| Elizabeth |  | | Author: David Starkey | | A superb analysis of this famous Tudor Queen as a woman in a man’s world. |
| The Gunpowder Plot |  | | Author: Antonia Fraser. | | Describes, like a John Le Carrie novel, how a group of Catholic Terrorists almost blew up the English Houses of Parliament and the King and all his Protestant ministers. |
1000 YEARS AGO
| Warriors of God |  | | Author: James Renton Jr. | | An intriguing dual biography of two leaders, The Norman English Christian King, Richard the Lion Heart and the defender of Jerusalem, the Turkish warrior Saladin at the time of the third Crusade. |
RELIGION.
All the books listed below are written by modern authors in a modern easy to read style but are rigorous in their analysis making use of all the latest texts. Religious people and atheists will be equally educated and entertained. Books in this section cover the main religions of those now living in England.
Books describing and comparing religions. | A History of God |  | | Author: Karen Armstrong | | Karen Armstrong an ex Catholic Christian Nun is a brilliant writer, on religions on which she is an expert and acknowledged as such by Christians of all the main sects together with Jews and Muslims. This book examines the history of the closely connected religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. |
| The World Religions Reader |  | | Editor: Gwilym Beckerlegge. | Gwilym Beckerlegge is a member of the department of religious studied at England’s Open University where students can take their courses on-line. This book should be read when the reader has also read for example the book above (A History of God.) The book combines a short history of religions coupled with selected texts from each religion from the beginnings right up to today. There are many paragraphs from the Bible and the Koran for example. Also writings by recent contributors to their faith for example Jews writing on the Nazi German Holocaust and Muslim women on Islam in the twentieth century.
Religions covered: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. |
| So What's the Difference? |  | | Author: Fritz Ridenour. | | This book describes over 20 religions from a Christian perspective. Fritz Ridenour is a Californian American who has more than four million books in circulation. Religions covered include: Christian Roman Catholicism, Christian Protestantism, Christian Eastern Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, New Age, Christian Science, Freemasonry, Secular Humanism, Moonies and Witchcraft. |
Books on Christianity | Desire of the Everlasting Hills |  | | Author: Thomas Cahill | | Thomas Cahill has an ability to bring characters to life and is well informed on his subject. This book describes the world before and after Jesus and examines to texts (like the New Testament- Bible) to seek out the fascinating truth. Very informative but still easy to read. |
| How the Irish Saved Civilization |  | | Author: Thomas Cahill. | | A must for all students of the British Isles and the Christianity. This is the story of St Patrick who was born in the west of England, was kidnapped by Irish raiders, had a vision of God and went on to travel to Rome and bring back Christianity to Ireland about 1500 years ago. He converted most of pagan Ireland to Christianity, no mean feat when you read the psyche of the Irish (as described by Cahill) and set up monasteries to copy and preserve the vital Christian texts which were being systematically destroyed by the Vandals in Continental Europe. It was St Patrick’s followers who eventually came to England, via Scotland to set up monasteries to continue this work in the North. Later the Venerable Bede continued the good works. |
| The Inquisition |  | | Author: Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh | | Michael Baignent is a New Zealander who lives in England where, when writing this book, was taking a post graduate degree in Mysticism and Religious Experience at the University of Kent. Richard Leigh is an American who has studied at Tufts University in Boston, the University of Chicago and the State University of New York. General knowelege of The Inquisition is mostly confined to the Spanish Inquisition but this is only a small chapter in one of the black sides of the Christian Roman Catholic Church. Starting some 800 years ago to suppress alternative faiths the Office of the Inquisition is likened to the activities of Hitler’s Gestapo. Uncomfortable reading. |
Books on Islam | Islam: a Short History |  | | Author: Karen Armstrong. | | This is a short history of Islam written by an ex Catholic nun. Karen Armstrong left her religious orders after only seven years and has since become one of the world experts on religions acclaimed by Christians, Muslims and Jews alike. Very informative and entertaining reading, easy enough for bed time reading. |
| The Ottoman Centuries |  | | Author: Lord Kinross | | The rise and fall of the Turkish Empire. This is a masterpiece written by a man who knows his subject. This is not a book about Islam, as such, but tells us about the history of the greatest Islamic empire the world has ever seen and how Muslims at the time, though all conquering, allowed peoples of other religions to keep their faith without being persecuted. It also explains how the Ottoman Turks so dominated the Mediterranean and the trade routes to the east that Christian Europeans had to seek alternative routes for gold, spices and silks and discovered America by mistake. |
| Jihad: the Rise of Militant Islam |  | | Author: Ahmed Rashid | | Remember there are over 2 million Muslims in England. The Western world has suddenly been introduced to the word Jihad. This book written after 11/09/2001 (9/11) looks in detail at an area of the world little known to Westerners, Central Asia, and the future potential for Jihads from their people who have recently come out from under the cruel influence of the Soviets and now find themselves in abject poverty with inexperienced leadership, no markets for their goods and no suppliers for basic foods at a price they can afford. Their religion Islam, suppressed by the Russians for 70 years, went underground, and is not surprisingly resurging in a militant format. Hold your hat the West or do something positive. Ahmed Rashid, who lives in Pakistan, is an expert on the Taliban and the many other sects, with many miles of travel and many friends in the area. |
Books on Jews and Judaism | Wanderings : Chaim Potok's History of the Jews |  | | Author: Chaim Potok | | Chaim Potok is an American Jew, Korean war veteran and doctor of philosophy, whose father was born in Poland. Chaim soon realised that he and his father come from different cultures indeed different worlds. The research into his history based on this background in the reason for the book. Chaim writes in the first person and has travelled a lot to try and understand the different world of his ancestors over their 4000 year history. |
| A History of the Jews |  | | Author: Paul Johnson | | Johnson is not a Jew but has written a very open minded factual historical book useful both to students and bed time readers. This follows his book on the History of Christianity and History of the English People. All 4000 years covered. Helps in putting the Old Testament into the context of history. |
| Monsters & Madonnas : The Roots of Christian Anti-Semitism |  | | Author: Judith Taylor Gold. | | Judith is an American and a graduate of Syracuse University in Religion and Philosophy and the book reflects this combination of schools of thought. Be prepared for a thorough examination of the human psyche going back to earliest times, through Greek civilization, the virgin birth of Christ and his death sentence by Jews, to Christian theologians and the Holocaust. Makes you think. Serious rather than bed time reading. You might not agree with her conclusions! | |
