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An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)

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Author: John O'farrell
Publisher: Black Swan
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł7.99~~
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

26 reviews
Sales Rank: 69

Media: Paperback
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.6

ISBN: 0552773964
EAN: 9780552773966
ASIN: 0552773964

Publication Date: May 5, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: IN STOCK - BRAND NEW - SENT FIRST CLASS - IMMEDIATE DISPATCH

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Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Save money and re-read 1066 and all that August 19, 2008
You have a spare summer and fancy writing a book but can't be bothered with all that creative muse malarky. It's a bit too soon for the autobiography( still working on doing the X-factor and the Big Brother application and frankly not so hot on the sports front) so what do you do? Well you pop along to the local reference library and sort out a stack of What the Roman's did for us, Great Kings and Queens of England, Prime Minsters I have known, and write a comic History of Britain for History refusniks. This is what John O'Farrell attempts to do in An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge). As you failed English know ( for Americans and other ex colonial types, local joke so ignore) when we mention Britain we really mean England except if one of you win an Olympic medal so you still have time to fit in one for Scotland, Wales or Ireland.

The question is, does it work as comedy, history or even comedic history? The gold standard is 1066 and All That and frankly, the book struggles in comparison. Both draw on popular memories of what is history and make it the raw material for humour. The historical factoids of the O'Farrell book do make it ideal for a bathroom read as you can dip in and out as nature calls. But the John O'Farrell humour of Blackadderish quips and asides* can grate unlike1066 and All That.**

Well does it work as History? Er...not really. If you had more interesting things to do at school, it does give you a simple overview of English History. If you paid attention then the lack of accuracy (Read the Terry Deary Horrid History series to see how its done properly) or the one-dimensional nature of the account soon irritates. One particular annoying clanger is the myth that the Anglo-Saxons wiped out the Romano-Celtic language and culture. The 0rigins of the British by Stephen Oppenheimer based on genetic evidence show that the SW and Wales, Southern England and the North had separate and long-standing separate waves of settlement. Meaning that the natives that the Romans met in the south were of Germanic origin and hence why so little Celtic influence in place names and English. I could go about his slighting reference to the King James Bible (an attempt to head off the radical puritans translations), his failure to address the social-religious movements of the English Civil War and their impact and don't get me started on his nonsense of the first World War. Yes, I did pay attention in History and so what if you were more popular in school.

So any redeeming features? It does have several serious asides about the lack of social justice; we the working people rarely get a look in on political and social power until perhaps the English Civil war and then struggled to get universal franchise until 1948(when students having two votes was abolished). But, this was done much better by the classic Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson.

If you do get hold of a copy, pass it on to your teenagers who might at last get a sense what Sir was droning on about. As for you, its raining so get down and write the history that John O'Farrell didn't write. As for you few Americans still here, read about your own forgotten past in A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn.

Remembering that humour is subjective here are other viewpoints:

* Well researched, very funny book, which was a joy as holiday reading. Frequently laugh-out-loud. Highly enjoyable.

** a book full of silly upper-class-twit jokes. (Haw-haw! What will Master think!) .Anyway, for us who are more prosaically born and raised, this book offers no reward other than insight into the childhood of a frivolous (if Oxonian) class of recently and soon to be dead English aristocracy.

5 out of 5 stars

1066 and All That Rides Again (with one big difference) August 17, 2008
"1066 and All That" was the title of a spoof history text written in the 1930s that was less than accurate, to put it mildly, but which remained in print due to its humour for over 50 years.

John O'Farrell does write with accuracy as to the facts, but he is never less than entertaining, and frequently hilarious as to his very personal interpretations of them. This is a book that you can dip into, and almost any page will bring up a fact of which you were almost certainly previously unaware. (Want to know which English King possibly became an Italian monk? This will tell you.)

If you wanted a book to support and stimulate an older teenager's interest in history, this would be the one, but you may wish to keep it for yourself. Easy to pick up, and very, very difficult to put down.

4 out of 5 stars

Fun and not too challenging August 14, 2008
I was a bit suprised to read the negative reviews, I found this book to be fairly impartial - obviously John O'Farrell does have opinions but they are at least written with a sense of humour!
What you get as a reader is enough infomation to appear fairly knowledgable (with a bit of bluff if you happen to be caught with a history bore!) about almost any period up until 1945, certainly enough interesting facts to oohh and err at, enough to get you through a fundraising type quiz and enough of an opener to get you searching for more facts if that particular period strikes you as interesting.
I found myself loving every minute of it up until WW1 when I glazed over, just as I did at school, politics rather than people - but no, John O' Farrell did keep personalities in and I saw it through to the end.

It's a bit of a romp through history, nothing tedious enough to make you put the book down and plenty to get you typing keywords into google to find out more. Easy Peasy read with plenty of chuckles along the way.

4 out of 5 stars

Laugh out loud August 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

There are so few books that make me laugh out loud - but this is definitely top of the list. Not only is it hilarious - the flippant and often sarcatic asides are brilliant - but it actually makes you learn something about history. As a bit of a history buff myself (very amateur) there is so much I don't know and this is such a fun way to learn more. I can't recommend it highly enough. John O'Farrell for PM I say.

1 out of 5 stars

Another example of where we are going wrong! Teachers will love this! August 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

Im not going to spend too much time on this. This is another book that I am sure will go a long way to helping undermine what it means to be English (or British - however you wish you to look at it, but its the English that get the majority of the bashing as per usual)

If you are a parent and want to teach your kids the history of our once great nation, please avoid books like this. Its no wonder no one cares about this country anymore - read this if you want to raise ungrateful, uncultured and confused kids. Does no one else find it dangerous to fill everyone, especially our youth with this "hate who we were" propagandist, left-wing dogma?

Ok, so its funny. I even laughed myself. But as someone who has spent 26 years studying the history of these lands and has still emerged feeling proud of our past, please dont let this book be your first "view" on who we are or where we came from.

Love our history - it actually made us something more than just the laughing stock of Western Europe. Im sure academics, teachers and politicians will love this book.