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British Isles History Book Recommendation?


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Greetings--One of the best suggestions I have ever received from Cruise Critic was to read David McCullough's Path Between The Seas prior to a Panama Canal cruise. It made the cruise much more meaningful and enjoyable for me. I am booked on an upcoming British Isles cruise. Does anyone have a recommendation for a general history book on the British Isles? I know there are hundreds (thousands?!) of possibilities but I am hoping for a first hand recommendation.

Thanks,

John

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Greetings--One of the best suggestions I have ever received from Cruise Critic was to read David McCullough's Path Between The Seas prior to a Panama Canal cruise. It made the cruise much more meaningful and enjoyable for me. I am booked on an upcoming British Isles cruise. Does anyone have a recommendation for a general history book on the British Isles? I know there are hundreds (thousands?!) of possibilities but I am hoping for a first hand recommendation.

Thanks,

John

 

As we have close to 3000 years of history, a single book on the history of the BI will probably be rather large...

 

You're probably better off looking for local history books relevant to your ports of call and surrounding areas.

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OP, you said British Isles, so I guess you might be visiting the island of Ireland, in which case I’d say get a specific history of Ireland too. Preferably one that comes right up to date, or to the Good Friday Agreement at least.

 

But I fear you will have to book to come over a transatlantic cruise to catch up on your reading first [emoji3]

 

 

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Why not try a travel memoir or two? It’s a book written by someone who has either visited a place extensively or possibly lived there or has some other interesting take on a city, village or country. There are even quasi-literary type memoirs, it’s been argued A Movable Feast is one such book. There are also just works of literature set in foreign destinations that paint a wonderful picture of another place in the world.

 

I have read a combination of all of these types of books, sometimes before, sometimes after visiting a place. The travel memoirs became a regular way of helping me get ready for travel as a sort of prep or immersion as it would include things like food, culture, stories (past/present) language (foreign or English variant) and great unexpected surprises. The books included things that can’t be found in guide books and they helped me feel more aware of where I was headed. I think it made each trip better in all sorts of ways including comfort on one occasion in the South Pacific!

 

I would tend do do a deep dive into history books upon my arrival back home because by then I had a clear idea of the history of a place I had just visited and knew which parts of the history I most wished to explore further. One of the best parts about reading history when I returned home was that it helped to make it feel like the trip was continuing and kept the memories vivid in my mind, often even enhancing them because now I could make connections with what I had learned in my reading.

 

Sometimes the remnants of one trip would even go with me into another; I brought along a voluminous Queen Victoria biography (read an amazing Elizabth I bio too!) while I was up around the Baltic Sea and in Germany. Think those journeys were a year apart. I’m still trying to find the right book on Winston Churchill but I think I’m going to need two or three!

 

I always like Paul Theroux as a travel memoirist although I’m not sure that’s his title, but there are many like him who go off on journeys and write. Bill Bryson wrote one about going around “the island” but as Cotswold Eagle pointed out, the entirety of the UK also includes N. Ireland and I’m not sure he included that in his journey, hence I say island which hopefully includes England, Scotland and Wales.

 

Just some ideas to consider, I hope it helps a little.

Enjoy reading but have a wonderful journey!

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Thank you for all the thoughtful replies. I have found a couple of histories that are possibilities in the 400 page range. A friend gave me an interesting idea--an Advance Placement exam European history study guide! Boring reading to be sure but a decent way to provide quick context. I like the idea provided here to wait on the detailed history for my return home to extend the vacation and the experience.

John

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Simon Schama’s three volume history is good (the first 2 volumes particularly, in my opinion), but for a single book (albeit with almost 900 pages) have a look at Rebecca Fraser’s ‘The Story of Britain’.

 

 

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Not a book but Simon Schama’s BBC series A History of Britain is 15 hours very well spent. I think it’s easy enough to track down and binge-watch if you’re interested.

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