Books: The English And Their History By Robert Tombs

 (Drivebycuriosity) -  I am German and I like England. The country of Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols & Margarete Thatcher. And I love London, a megalopolis with a very peculiar mix of different cultures. So I wanted to know more about the island and read "The English And Their History" by Robert Tombs ( amazon). The 1074 pages were exhausting but I learned a lot:

 
- After the demise of the Romans (about 400 AD) England needed around 600 years to come back to a kind of organization & civilization.

- Before 1100 AD England was vulnerable to many invasions, including the Romans, Vikings &  the French. But the French invasion (1066 by William the Conqueror ) was the last the island suffered.

- In the begin of the second millennium England had mostly a French culture and people spoke French. Before the Tudors the Kings were all French, they were born in France, lived mostly there and died there.

- England developed very slowly into a democracy by gradually reducing the power of kings & queens, starting with the Magna Carta (1215). So England could avoid the bloody & messy revolutions many other European countries suffered.

- The   bubonic plague (1348 Black Death ) raised living standards of the survivors significantly because a reduced workforce caused higher wages and the diminished population lowered the demand for food and cut food prices.

 - In the middle of the 19th century England adapted to free trade which reduced import & food prices and raised so standard of living. Free trade also supported economic growth.

- The industrial revolution did not cause poverty and slums - which is often stated - instead it created jobs and raised incomes and helped so England to adapt to a sudden population explosion caused by a better health care

-  Margaret Thatcher, who had saved nation from immanent collapse, was accused by her many enemies, even inside her party, that she had maliciously ravaged a harmonious and humane society and was kicked out of office by the ungrateful Tories.

Conclusion: In the recent 1000 years England had a round trip from being a not very important island to a global empire and back to not very important island.

And Tombs concluses those "who have lived in England since 1945 have been among the luckiest people in the existence of Homo Sapiens, rich, peaceful and healthy."