United Kingdom Books

I first came across the '92 version of this book and have had many years of excellent use out of it. The updated 97 version was found by accident in a local book store.

The new version has been updated somewhat though sadly with the omission of an interesting Abbey in Wales. It does however still retain a captivating selection of unusual Hotels to stay in.

What seperates this book from crowd for me is the simple yet accurate descriptions of the Hotels. I have given it to many a visiting friend to help enhance their journey across this green and pleasant land.

Highly recommended.

Culture Smart is a "to the point" helpful book that anyone will appreciate when it comes to working and doing businesss in the UK. Even a visitor can garner lots of bite size pieces of helpful info to maket the British experience even more enjoyable. I loved the writing and the layout of the copy.
Great tool and great tips re: life in the amazing UK!

Britain And Barbary: 1589-1689 by Nabil Matar (Professor of English and Chair of the Department of Humanities and Communication at the Florida Institute of Technology) is the fascinating study of the many interesting occurrences of early modern England's relationship with the North African political front in the progressive time imperative to England's fundamental grounding during the 100 year span of 1589 to 1689. As an in-depth study significant to England's history, Britain And Barbary is a strongly recommended read for all historians, especially those seeking scholarly studies of the United Kingdom.

This is the third book in a series. The fifth volume was launched by the Japan Society in London on January 18, 2005 and the sixth is due out soon.

There is a great deal of serious and scholarly material here, though as a rugby fan I particularly enjoyed Chapter 27 by Alison Nish which explains Britain's contribution to the development of rugby in Japan.

Ian Ruxton, translator of "Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era" and "ULTIMATE CRUSH: Waseda University Rugby, Leadership and Building the Strongest Winning Team in Japan". (Both of these titles are available here on amazon.com.)

A comprehensive, fully documented discussion of Britain's relations wih Saudi Arabia and other peninsular states, more wide-ranging than Troeller's coverage to 1925

Anthony Forster's volume is a timely case study of Britain's role in the Maastricht negotiations. Its informative narrative and empirical analysis are based on a thorough understanding of the intricacies of intergovernmental conference (IGC) diplomacy and the domestic politics of one of the European Community's/Union's larger member states. Forster concisely explains the relationship between the two intergovernmental conferences on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and Political Union and the significant reasons behind their linkage: 1. the requirements of domestic ratification of the two Treaties that emerged from the Maastricht European Council in December 1991; 2. and an implicit understanding between Mitterrand and Kohl that their countries' commitment to European integration was a long-term one.

Forster chooses an in-depth look at one member state's domestic and European priorities over a manageable time period thus allowing him to analyze the constitutional, economic, historical, ideological, institutional, political and social facet's of Britain's policy in Europe. In view of the legacy Mrs. Thatcher bequeathed to her successor, Mr. John Major, the ideological aspect is particularly relevant on the domestic political scene; here Forster is balanced in his analysis of "the party management dimension." Likewise, Forster distinguishes intelligently between the important role Delors played in the EMU conference from that of the Commission as a whole and from Delors' difficulties during the negotiations on Political Union. Always present is a well-crafted profile of the national context, including debates about the implications of deeper integration for British sovereignty, discussions about the economic merits of a single currency and conflicts among personalities brought up by EMU within the ranks of Conservative party politics.

Forster is right to consider the tactical mistakes British negotiators made on the EMU dossier, especially their failure to understand the importance of EMU as a common goal for the other member states with the possible exception of Denmark for reasons of constitutional and parliamentary politics. His sole focus on Britain's strategy and tactics does not offer him an opportunity to consider either the attitudinal structuring inherent in the EMU bargain or its integrative dimension. Nonetheless, Forster's analysis is sensitive to the fact that all negotiations contain elements of distributive, integrative and intraorganizational bargaining as well as attitudinal structuring.

As Forster explains, the intergovernmental nature of the Treaty on European Union, epitomized by its pillar structure in the eyes of numerous analysts, "should not be exaggerated." Indeed as a complement to the lines traced in the legal dimension by Bruno de Witte, Forster questions the ability of the JHA and CFSP pillars to remain detached from the institutional dynamics of Community decision-making. Significantly, the implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty provides yet another test in this regard. The key point underlined by Forster is that the results of Maastricht allowed the Community to become increasingly embedded in the domestic decision-making of the member states, a process Wolfgang Wessels and Dietrich Rometsch analyze conceptually as "institutional fusion," in terms of "mutual influence and interdependence."

In this context, there is no sequencing in the definition of preferences in the European policy-making of most member states. As Forster explains, although national priorities dominated British thinking on Maastricht, increasingly there is an on-going simultaneous definition of national and European objectives. Here it is necessary to question the degree to which the ever present weight of decisions taken in daily integration influences the negotiators at the table during intergovernmental conference diplomacy, particularly in the more federally-minded member states like the Federal Republic of Germany. In related research beyond the scope of this volume, an analysis of the interactions between the domestic politics of sectoral integration and the domestic politics of a member state's Treaty ratification process, as both are linked to a state's interests defined in IGC diplomacy, may provide clues as to the constraints that shape the "win-set" for participants in future intergovernmental conferences.

The dynamics of changes to the east and south of Europe are bound to exacerbate the distributive dimension of negotiations in the Union as the interests of the members states increasingly diverge. Although coalition politics has a role to play in Council negotiations, the traditional Franco-German alliance is changing in light of EMU's implementation, the challenge of budgetary politics and the prospect of future enlargements. In this volume, Forster at times underestimates the nature and impact of the "privileged partnership" at Maastricht. It is clear, however, that the impetus to integrate provided by historic Franco-German cooperation was noticeably absent throughout the 1996 IGC. The collective impact of the Scandinavian countries, the smaller states, the Presidency and, finally, Blair's Britain came to the fore shaping the results at Amsterdam. This leaves open questions as to the role and influence of larger states in a Union bound to include an increasing number of smaller states in the decades ahead. This is only one of the issues that Forster's book lays the groundwork to analyze. For those concerned about and with the future of integration in Europe, this volume is the most empirically well-researched analysis in print on British conference diplomacy at Maastricht.

On our trip to London we decided to avoid guided tours and go it on our own using the subways and trains. This book had all the information we needed - what stations to leave from for the different destinations, train schedules, how much tickets cost, and brief descriptions of places to visit and things to do while you were there. We took it everywhere with us. It also had extensive information on the different train passes that were available, how much they cost, and how they work. There are a dizzying array of these and the book was quite good at explaining the differences. We ended up having a fantastic time and seeing everything we wanted with no travel problems at all. Highly recommended. We were staying in London but it also lists trips leaving from Cardiff and Edinburgh, and included information on trips to Europe through the Chunnel.

I want to read the book!

This is a singular, expert portrayal of the first millennium in British history. I found the writing style to be easy to read, and I congratulate the author for his effectual use of grammar and punctuation. As the blurb on the back cover suggests, Britain is very much regarded within the sphere of Europe, and the reasons become quite obvious in the reading (developments within the church being spread, for example.) Amazon and the publishers offer a generous amount to look at, such as the Contents and several pages of the Introduction, including the first of 6 maps in the book. I will list the subheadings, which occur throughout the book, as a means of helping readers know what they will find within these pages. I recommend this book enthusiastically, and now that it is read, it will sit on my bookshelf next to Alfred P. Smyth's book published 17 years earlier, which the author cites several times (hint: it is about Scotland).

Chapter 1: 'Britain'; The sources and their study

Chapter 2: Julius Caesar and after; Claudius's invasion of Britain; The Romans in the north

Chapter 3: 'Romanisation'; The administration; The army; Towns; The countryside; Industry and trade; Language, culture and identity

Chapter 4: The Romanisation of the pre-Roman gods; Mediterranean cults; Religion in Roman life; Christianity in Roman Britain; Pelagianism; Patrick; Nynia and the southern Picts

Chapter 5: Migrations and/or invasions; The end of Roman Britain; Gildas and the end of Roman Britain; The Arthurian gap; Migrants and settlers, 1: the Picts and Scots; Migrants and settlers, 2: the British; Migrants and settlers, 3: Angles, Saxons and Jutes

Chapter 6: What was a king?; 'Celtic' and 'Germanic' society; The kingdoms of the north; The kingdoms of the south

Chapter 7: Columba; Augustine; The second mission to the English; The myth of the Celtic Church; The mission at home; The mission overseas
Chapter 8: The Northumbrian Renaissance; The decline of monasticism?; The rise of Mercia; Coinage and commerce; The rebirth of towns; Political change in Wales and Scotland; Land and property

Chapter 9: The earliest raids; The Vikings; The Great Army in England; Alfred and the defence against the Vikings; The Vikings in the north and west; Scandinavian settlement in Britain

Chapter 10: The conquests of the West Saxon kings; The conquests of the Scottish kings; The English kings of the later tenth century; The tenth-century Reformation; The Danes in England; The end of the Viking Age?

Also note a couple misprints:

Page 25: "Belgovae" should read, "Selgovae".
Page 138: "...in 942 a king..." should read, "...in 842 a king...".

The Epilogue touches on how and why this book, and the series to which it belongs, is relevant to today's issues: "... the main theme of this book has really been the complex history of the emergence of the three main political units of modern Britain, and the emergence of political and/or national identities."

Buried deep in this fine work is Francis Pryor's pondering of the question, how much of a 'revolution' was the Industrial one? The question indicates the theme of this book, which stresses continuity. Change was present, but often under very controlled circumstances. For Pryor, an archaeologist-writer who offers his ideas with wit and conviviality, the theme is "continuity" over "revolution". It's easy to highlight changes in a social scene, but as a man dedicated to hard evidence, the background is more important. Here, in the last of a string of books on what his science has found in Britain, continuity is the dominant theme.

Pryor launched his concept with "Britain BC", carried it through with post-Roman times in "Britain AD" and now arrives at the Christian-dominated Middle Ages. The change in religion had little impact on the daily transactions throughout Britain, with the likely shift of taxes from manor to chapel. The time-frame for this book begins about 650 CE and ends with the death of Henry VIII in 1547 CE. Nearly a millennium of time, with plenty of opportunity for "revolutions" - yet no major shifts in daily existence are in evidence. Henry's sequestration of the monasteries produced little in the way of disruption for village or town folk. As Pryor notes in the beginning, the book is about "hedges and fields, waterfronts and trade" rather than about the antics of monarchs or aristocrats. The Black Death had much more impact on society than any of the royals. Apart from the mortality, the economic shifts resulting from this plague were of far longer-lasting significance.

Even before the plague struck, agriculture and manufacturing led to early "free trade" agreements, even reaching across the Channel. Pryor finds such arrangements indicative of wider awareness and interaction than most "classical" histories have granted. Moreover, it's not treaties and other documents that he uses to make these points, but archaeological finds that provide hard evidence of what was transpiring in Britain in the Middle Ages. The Viking and Norse incursions carried a good many people into Britain, but after the initial raids, they came to stay and settled in nicely, thank you. If anything, the Norse' sea-faring skills more likely expanded existing trade arrangements, than disrupted commerce.

Pryor's chapters on urban life are the highlights of this work. After the Norse had become part of British society, population growth became a significant part of the social scene. Numbers rose to a height just before the Black Death that were not attained again until the 16th Century. The author selects various towns, describing their social and economic reactions to the plague and its aftermath. Drawing on his own observations and that of many other workers of recent generations he depicts a scene of nearly continuous development. York, in particular receives detailed attention for a span of nearly five centuries. York has provided a rich archaeological trove for the period - a rising trade community with a reach to distant places.

Reading Pryor is an unending delight, with nothing hidden in arcane academic discourse. He's open about what the evidence says and where uncertainties remain. Only the mildest interest in the past will bring rewards from this book. Readers are encouraged to enter this realm in full confidence that research is sound and the presentation fully accessible. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]