Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 629 pages

Bookseller
'Marr is a genial, entertaining and informative author with absolute mastery of his subject.'

Bookbag
'Marr is a kindly writer and sees positive qualities in all the politicians he writes about...'

Independent
'A must-have addition to any respectable bookshelf.'

Customer Reviews

A Superficial History of Modern Britain.
Andrew Marr's book is, if not a totally one-way glass facade, then certainly a pretty smeared window upon society that is clearly influenced by the naive, PC stupidity of those many refer to as the 'chattering classes'. Shallow and childlike. The professional intelligentsia, and their private armchair and public media imitators, will surely love it.

Excellent, compellint
Andrew Marr's 'History of Modern Britain' is a real tour de force - readable, entertaining and informative. The scholarship is obvious, but never detracts from the narrative. Marr covers all aspects of British history - economic, foreign relations, social - but always makes you feel you're following the narrative thread from 'then' to 'now': where we are now 'belongs'. Yet he also lets you think about how differently things might have turned out if some other set of circumstances had prevailed.
Excellent book, 'marred' (forgive the pun) only by sloppy editing, with frequent spelling mistakes and incorrect commas.

Pacy and very, very readable
This book's great advantage is that Marr was trained a journalist, not a historian. So his pace is rapid, his prose snappy and it doesn't get boring. Even in the boring bits.

This does focus a lot on the politics, but, unlike some other reviewers, I rather liked the divergences into fashion or food or theatre. I find that always brings history to life rather more than politicians in suits talking about things.

There are mistakes in the book that I spotted, which suggests there are likely to be rather more that I didn't. Sloppy, but not terminal. And let that not spoil too much what is an excellent run through the history of the last sixty years. If you are looking for an entertaining, single volume history that is readable throughout, this is the one.