Product Description

This reference text is one of 13 volumes which include a full historical and genealogical account of all peerages created in the British Isles since the Conquest.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #750719 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

For lovers of British History: A MUST
maybe that sounds a bit silly to say this about "The Complete Peerage" as it is not even a book which you read in the strictest sense. Well, nevertheless it is for me: I was a student at the London School of Economics and Political Science when I first saw and used the 14 heavy volumes of the "The Complete Peerage". I always wanted to have them myself but first it is difficult to get hold of them and secondly even if you get hold of them they are just "dam" expensive. Well, the reprint in this concise version is the ideal solution for both problems. It is very nicely done and even compressed extremely readable (saying it just in case you get worried that is might be too small). If you are interested in British history, the peerage and genealogy this is the one book you want to have. Here one finds all the necessary information on titles and families. Well, I cannot judge whether there is an occasional error but I suppose one cannot do better in just one go having all the information. At least I could not resist to order the last volume on the newly created peers. I am looking forward to check my private files collected over a long period of time and compare them with the information given in the "The Complete Peerage". I could not resist to order the last volume on the newly created peers. Just a wonderful piece of work!!

A vital reference for British history
The Complete Peerage is a listing of titles of nobility and their holders from Norman times to the twentieth century (a continuation - Addenda and Corrigenda - to 1995 is also available from amazon.co.uk). The current edition - printing four pages on one to compress the full work into six convenient volumes - is, next to the DNB, the most important reference for British history, and its re-entry into print is long overdue! The information is as accurate as available, and the footnotes are a delight (though the authors follow Dr. Johnson's alleged rule of never giving the Whig dogs the best of it - William III and Home Rule set them foaming at the mouth!) If you are at all interested in British history, get the Complete Peerage...

A fine supplement to an essential reference book
The Complete Peerage (until recently out-of-print, regrettably!) is THE reference for those wanting nuts-and-bolts data on the British peerage - an essential component of British history. This supplement (by historian Peter Hammond) corrects errors in the original (especially in the light of recent scholarship) and continues the extant peerage to 1995, as well as including post-1938 creations. There are mistakes (the Margadale peerage - the last pre-Thatcher hereditary creation - is somehow omitted) but few. This is a fine book, and should appeal to the professional scholar and the amateur lover of British history.