A History of Modern Britain - Books (Andrew Marr, Paperback)

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Customer Reviews of A History of Modern Britain

Seapook

7th January 2009

Audio version
Bought this as a christmas present, so unable to comment on content, (sure it is very good!), but audio book is abridged, which wasn't clear from the description and might be an issue for some.

J. R. Skelton
Devon, England
5th December 2008

Stick to what you know?
I liked this book, and as an overview of the post war to modern day period, it's pretty acceptable but I was surprised at how much of his comments/narrative were seemingly only evidenced by politician's own memoirs. Not greatly partisan sources!! I was also annoyed by the sheer volume of typos - Had someone shot the editor? Perhaps after this performance they should have! I also found his forays into pop music and fashion quaintly embarrassing! My final comment, though not necessarily a criticism was how much more interesting and accurate (for me) his comments and observations etc appeared to be from 79 onwards, which I assume was when he became more closely involved with events through his journalism.

Wellreadamateur
London
20th November 2008

Readable and interesting book
This is an interesting and readable history of our country since the Second World War marred (pun intended) by a liberal/left-wing bias. Andrew Marr deals with a number of topics and this book is neither political nor social history but contains bits of each and more.

Much of the book is a re-hash of information that I had already gathered from elsewhere but some topics were new to me. For example, Andrew Marr spent some time discussing the rise of pop music and how this and the fashion industry seems to have originated mainly from people who went to art school rather than e.g. university or technical college.

The main strengths of the book are a clear writing style and the willingness to tackle slighly off beat subjects here and there so that one gained some knowledge and understanding of unfamiliar topics.

Dave
London, UK
15th November 2008

An average, anti-success summary of the UK
In summay, Andrew tries to bring together a very complicated period of life in the UK and diluting it to the level of the average Guardian reader (i.e. tell me what to think and that be so, and by the way I like the working class, alright guv').

Generally well researched, but so distracted by his weird "liberal" / puritanical (anti-alcohol / fun) beliefs, that you don't know what he is trying to say. If this is the future of liberal and impartial journalism then we are destined to live with a Socialist Fascist system, and having experienced this book and this Government I think this is closer to being a reality than many think (despite the arguments of ideology!)

A. D. St John-bee
Cambridge, England
27th September 2008

Excellent book
I took this book on holiday with me and I feel a week by the pool is a perfect way to enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed the pace of this work. I felt it gave just the right amount of detail without dwelling on unimportant facts.

For me it was constantly enthralling. As a 23 year-old I certainly learnt a great deal. The detail is far greater than the BBC series that accompanied the book. My only doubt is whether had I lived through the times discussed I would have found it a little lightweight.