This is an agreeable narrative, easy to read, of the history of the English nation through twenty centuries. It is intended for the reader who wants a comprehensive survey that brings out the important lines of development but does not clog the story with too many facts, dates, treaties and battles. Underlying the account is a professional scholar's acquaintance with historical scholarship, conveyed as a stimulating succession of ideas. The reader gets a strong sense of the evolution of English society: the mixture of law, custom and innovation in its constitutional history; its curious blend of characteristics. There are numerous lively - and sometimes surprising - quotations from the sources. Its compass is the whole field of English history from the Roman occupation to the end of the nineteenth century; a brief postscript brings the story up to the present day.

This is an agreeable narrative, easy to read, of the history of the English nation through twenty centuries. It is intended for the reader who wants a comprehensive survey that brings out the important lines of development but does not clog the story with too many facts, dates, treaties and battles. Underlying the account is a professional scholar's acquaintance with historical scholarship, conveyed as a stimulating succession of ideas. The reader gets a strong sense of the evolution of English society: the mixture of law, custom and innovation in its constitutional history; its curious blend of characteristics. There are numerous lively - and sometimes surprising - quotations from the sources. Its compass is the whole field of English history from the Roman occupation to the end of the nineteenth century; a brief postscript brings the story up to the present day.

This is an agreeable narrative, easy to read, of the history of the English nation through twenty centuries. It is intended for the reader who wants a comprehensive survey that brings out the important lines of development but does not clog the story with too many facts, dates, treaties and battles. Underlying the account is a professional scholar's acquaintance with historical scholarship, conveyed as a stimulating succession of ideas. The reader gets a strong sense of the evolution of English society: the mixture of law, custom and innovation in its constitutional history; its curious blend of characteristics. There are numerous lively - and sometimes surprising - quotations from the sources. Its compass is the whole field of English history from the Roman occupation to the end of the nineteenth century; a brief postscript brings the story up to the present day.