United Kingdom Books

The double standard used to judge Francoist Spain is demonstrated in this well-written book about the immediate post-WW II world. Indeed, the standard still exists among many who still buy into the myth of a democratic "Republican" Spain (as Republican as Pol Pot's Kampuchea was Democratic.)The tension between a decaying British Empire and a muscular, confident USA on this issue made Franco supremely smug about the West ultimately coming around to his anti-Soviet way of thinking. In the face of guilt-ridden France and Britain's intransigence towards Franco's participation in NATO, the US took the toro by the horns and signed a bilateral agreement giving base rights in Spain. The book is a little light on the Soviet side of the issue but the author's focus was on the Anglo-American conflict over Franco. I recommend it for any student of the early Cold War.

Most research on opium during the nineteenth century has focused either on Britain or China. A good deal has been written on opium usage in Britain, as well as moral and medical attitudes towards the substance, and the history of Anglo-Chinese political and economic relationships generally give a prominent place to opium and its wars. Britain and China were primarily consumers during the century, and until late on, most of the drug came from India. By the 1890s, more poppies were being grown in China and the Middle East, and the market share enjoyed by Indian producers was being challenged.

Paul C. Winther's decision to concentrate his research on India is thus to be applauded, as is his exposition of debates about the value of opium as a protective and possible cure for cases of malaria. As he points out, the "malaria" diagnosis during his period was vague, and included many fevers that were subsequently differentiated, on the basis of subtly different clinical courses and a variety of specific causative agents. The malaria and opium nexus is consequently extremely tenuous, and nineteenth-century judgments about the drug's role in treating fevers were a heady mix of moral, economic, and psychological factors.

For readers like myself with a vested interest in his particular theme, Winther has much to offer. He has read widely and offers full descriptions of a number of works relevant to the topic. Almost half of the book is devoted to the evidence collected by the 1894 Royal Commission on Opium. He shows how the seven volumes of evidence and conclusions were collected and analysed, concentrating especially on the key medical member of the Commission, Sir William Roberts, a prominent Manchester physician. The Commission took evidence from a wide variety of witnesses, British as well as Indian, and they heard an equally wide variety of opinion, about the extent of opium use in India, as well as its medical value. Given the Government of India's need for the revenues from the drug, both as a source of export income and as a tidy profit from home sales (the Government controlled most production), the Committee's recommendation that the opium trade be continued is hardly surprising. Whether the Committee was convened simply to pacify the increasingly vocal activities of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade is another matter.

Winther implies that there was collusion and deliberate selection of testimony favourable to the economic interests of the Government of India. The evidence, as presented here, is less compelling. Roberts certainly interpreted the evidence with which he had been presented to conclude that the medical value of opium was such that a prohibition on its sale (and export) would be unjustified. In addition, he drew on two earlier studies that purported to demonstrate the value of opium as an effective drug against malaria. Using hindsight, it is easy for Winther to show that these clinical studies were rather inconclusive and faulty. In his eagerness to condemn Roberts, Winther uses modern criteria of clinical evaluation, and at one point castigates Roberts for not being aware of Ronald Ross's researches on the mode of transmission of malaria. Given the fact that Roberts was writing two years before Ross published anything on the subject, this is historical hindsight with a vengeance.

Winther's study is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Indian dimension of opium production and use. Its value to students of the history of malaria is less clear. He has uncovered some salient debates on the relative merits of opium and quinine in cases of "fever," but his trawling of the literature on fevers in nineteenth-century India is selective, and opium featured much less in this literature that an uncritical reading of this monograph would suggest.

This collection contains some superb articles on Anglo-Norman warfare, including three of John Gillingham's masterpieces. It does require a little background to appreciate these articles, which were really written for professional historians rather than general readers, but not too much. If you've read Verbruggen and Smail, this is a good next place to go (especially if read in combination with some contemporary chronicles). ---Prof. Clifford J. Rogers

For people just getting interested in this period of British History, this is an excellent work. The Anglo-Saxon period was a time of turbulent upheaval and change in Britain, and Fisher provides riveting accounts of the conquests of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, then the coming age of the Normans. The books is focused on the various parts of how Britain evolved, how the warrior bands that ruled the lands were ultimately forged into a nation, influenced by kings and church.
Fish is the lecturer (professor to the Yanks!!) at the University of Cambridge, and brings to bear his talents in this concise, rather straightforward work, making it one of the best books on this period for the general reader looking for answers.

There are few primary sources for early British history that can be accessed by the interested lay person. Such sources are often too obscure or fragmentary for the general reader to either discover or understand in context. Further, many of the texts are in archaic languages closed to all but the serious scholar. Fortunately, Anne Savage's beautifully illustrated and faithfully translated "Anglo Saxon Chronicles" is available to draw back the curtain on the mesmerizing journals kept by Christian monks on early British history. These journals are written in vernacular Old English and are wonderfully translated by Ms Savage. The text is accompanied by illustrations of buildings and artifacts dating to the period covered by the chronicles and by explanatory sections which provide historical background to the monk's journals. If you're interested in this period of history, Ms. Savage's work is a compelling introduction to an era for which few primary sources survive. Highly recommended.

1. This text is a compilation of original as well as previously published scholarly articles that deal with aspects of studies in Anglo-Saxon history from a wide variety of disciplines.

2. "Since the 1960s there have been major advances in our understanding of the nature of Anglo-Saxon society. This book assembles a selection of papers, several of which are new or revised for this publication, that illustrate the range of insights historians have gained over the past 35 years about the Anglo-Saxon era. A number of kindred disciplines such as archaeology, historical geography, numismatics and place-name studies have contributed to our knowledge of the history of this period. The volume will draw on publications in these fields in order to assemble a collection of essays from diverse sources that can serve to provoke new questions and reveal opportunities for further research. The book will be ideal for teachers who wish to introduce students to Anglo-Saxon history but whose college libraries have limited resources in this field. And those interested in the early Middle Ages will value having this collection of authoritative studies drawn from
sometimes out-of-print and obscure sources."
-Preface of the General Editors

3. Table of Contents:

a. List of Figures; Table
b. List of Abbreviations
c. Acknowledgements
d. Preface of the General Editors
e. Introduction

[Articles]
1. Anglo-Saxon Institutions and Early English Society
by D.A. Bullough
2. The Social and Political Problems of the Early English Church
by Eric John
3. Bede's Native Sources for the Historia Ecclesiastica
by D.P. Kirby
4. The Development of Military Obligations in Eighth-
and Ninth-Century England
by Nicholas Brooks
5. The Bishops of Winchester, the Kings of Wessex, and
the Development of Winchester in the Ninth and Early Tenth
Centuries
by Barbara A.E. Yorke
6. The Settlers: Where Do We Get Them From- And Do
We Need Them?
by Niels Lund
7. The Declining Reputation of Æthelred the Unready
by Simon Keynes
8. Archbishop Wulfstan and the Holiness of Society
by Patrick Wormald
9. Some Agents and Agencies of the Late-Anglo-Saxon State
by James Campbell

[articles listed as `Special Approaches']

1. "Anthropology"
Concubinage in Anglo-Saxon England
by Margaret Clunies Ross
2. "Archaeology"
Felix Urbs Winthonia: Winchester in the Age of
Monastic Reform
by Martin Biddle
3. "Art History"
A Paean for a Queen: The Frontispiece to the Encomium
Emmae Reginae
by Carol Neuman de Vegvar
4. "Economic and Comparative History"
Early Fairs and Markets in England and Scandinavia
by Peter Sawyer
5. "Geography and Geology"
Mapping the Anglo-Saxon Landscape: A Land-Systems
Approach to the Study of the Bounds of the Estate of
Plaish
by Peter Robinson
6. "Place-Names"
Charltons and Carltons
by H.P.R. Finberg
7. "Topography and Archaeology"
Stamford: The Development of an Anglo-Scandinavian Borough
by Christine Mahany and David Roffe
8. Contributors
9. Index

This book is a fairly comprehensive overview of both the gear and the nature of warfare in Anglo Saxon England, and has everything going for it: beautiful full colour plates of artefacts, reproductions, and reenactors, well researched and informative sections on all types of gear, specific details on certain artefacts, and much more. It covers an awful lot of material for such a relatively small book (159 pages) and is an excellent value for the money spent.

Indeed, I recommend this as the first choice and starting point for any reenactor of the Anglo Saxon culture/period in need of military information. It is really that good. And even if you are more the Viking or Migration era type, there is still a good deal here to make it more than worth your while to purchase.

If you are trying to reenact a warrior persona, this book has all you need apart from clothing and other household items (and even some hints on clothing may be gleaned from the photos of reenactors featured in this book)

As a personal aside, this book is really among my favourites, for its wealth of information and excellent layout. I really can't find anything bad to say about it - this is really one of the best introductions to the subject, that covers everything in sufficient detail to be truly useful. Much better than any Osprey book you care to name!

This is a useful scholarly, yet approachable title to students of Iron Age agriculture as well as those interested in spiritual practice in pre-Roman Gaul and Britain. The discussion on domestic and hunted animals is the strength of the book, as the conclusions are drawn from archaeology. This title presents zooarchaeology in the UK as well as that from France. I was especially appreciative of this, as I do not speak (or read) French! Her book is an excellent compliment to the works of Peter J. Reynolds and the research at Butser Ancient Farm.

In describing a society that has left no written record of its ideas on animal myth and religion Greene relies on archaeology along with ethnography. Although Dark Age Irish legends can not be expected to be perfectly equivalent with the beliefs of Iron Age Britons and Gauls, they do provide a helpful guide.

All in all it's an excellent book.

Engaging and thoughtful, a fascinating look at post-reformation England and the means by which a common discourse was used by different groups for different purposes. The author provides reflections on much more in the 700+ pages; all are worth reading. Highly recommended for anyone interested in vital, often ignored, dynamics in the the birthing of the modern world.

Dennis R. Hidalgo

Thomas Bender, ed. The Antislavery Debate

What can a historian do when there is not enough empirical evidence to produce a quantitative and comprehensively thesis for a social historical problem that defies psychological scrutiny? David Brion Davis opted for an answer that satisfies cynic assumptions with circumstantial evidences. Davis argues that the strength of abolitionism in early industrial Britain derived from its susceptibility to the needs of the dominant political elite. It was particularly influenced by this new bourgeoisie capitalist class' modes of industrial discipline. Antislavery main, and unconscious, purpose was to desensitize English society to the newer forms of oppression evident in the increasing wage labor. His context of conceptual reference appears to flow from Marxism and Freudian thought: the rise of an oppressing bourgeoisie driven by its hidden and selfish Id. To Thomas Haskell this idea of unconscious "self-deception" and motivation by class interests is not convincing. For him, it is impossible for the historian to bring concrete evidence to bear, which will distinguish between unconscious intention and unintended consequences. Following what appears to be a more objective goal, Haskell intends to draw a straighter line between the rise of the market economy and the rise of the abolitionist movement in 1750s. In doing so he moves from a quasi-Freudian historical analysis to an Ericsonian: that of a cognitive change of behavior. For Haskell capitalist and market expansion broaden social perception that in turn promoted moral responsibility. The most powerful catalyst in this process of change was the "intensification of market discipline, and the penetration of that discipline into spheres of life previously untouched by it." To this Davis decries Haskell approach for being more economic deterministic than a rationalistic. To this, John Ashworth adds that Haskell is not able to follow up the empirical inclinations of his Davis' critic since he does not supply enough evidence to support his argument. Indeed, his only example of moral switch to Antislavery is the Quaker John Woolman. Without knowing Haskell is caught in one of the most frustrating traps of an empirical driven discipline. His response is that he is not looking for a comprehensive societal change but for a mechanism that might have caused the change. The problems this approach is the usefulness of such "found" mechanism if there is no proof that the mechanism was indeed used sufficiently as to merit its historical validity. Nevertheless, Haskell bottom line is his desire to demonstrate that abolitionists rationally attached the worst evil of their times. Davis and Ashworth's response to Haskell's premise is that wage labor could have been also attacked and was not. Ashworth spend most of his time criticizing Haskell and throwing some bits toward Davis. Yet he is also able to provide an interesting proposition. First, he asserts Davis' starting point as the place to launch the investigation: the emergence of a dominant class. This would lead us to the disregarding of wage labor abuses and protected interests. But instead of moving completely toward Davis, he detours into the cultural notion of family and its effect on productivity. The simple conclusion, thus, is that since slavery, through its detrimental effect on family and society, slowed the pace of economic advance, "it is not surprising that to more people than ever before it seemed an unmitigated evil." Haskell response to this is that these family values could have been in existence long before the abolitionist movement, thus, rendering useless in the debate. Ashworth's last answer is that the production ethos has a long family history, it was the innovation brought by master-wage earner relationship that transformed the view of family into a more entrepreneurial project. Clearly this debate is provocative, but narrowly conceived, as is mainly centered around Marxist concepts of history, evasive evidences and a revival of neo-Whiggists approaches. Very little criticism could be employed against the authors since they exhausted most of it that could be applicable to their line of argument. However, an also important critique to a combine look at the arguments presented may be the dearth of sociological and cultural approaches that may enhance the historical view that as historians we are trying to discover.