This Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe

History

TOMBS, Robert

Europe

Penguin

Product Description 
Geography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe. In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans. 
 About the Author 
Robert Tombs is Emeritus Professor of French History at Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John's College. Most of his writing and teaching has been on French and European history and on Franco-British relations, for which he was awarded the Palmes Académiques by the French government. Since his foray into English history, with the publication of The English and Their History in 2014, he has become a frequent commentator on contemporary issues, and is co-editor of the pro-Brexit academic website Briefings for Britain.

Allen Lane.

A definitive study of the unique and endlessly fascinating relationship between France and Britain — and its effects on the world.The relationship between Britain and France is one of the catalysts of world history. Their geographical proximity, combined with their intellectual and economic dynamism, placed them both at the forefront of continental developments and overseas expansion from the eighteenth century onwards. Their insatiable rivalry set the pattern of European imperialism, and hence did much to shape the future of the planet. The interaction between them — both peaceful and violent, combining admiration and emulation as well as rejection and conflict — did much to create the identity and culture of both. The result, paradoxically, has been the persistence of a deep sense of difference between two countries that have much in common but regard themselves as exceptional.That Sweet Enemy is a study of the dynamic processes of mutual contact and influence: and how these have been expressed in caricatures, histories, literature, painting and film — it is definitely not a standard textbook account of diplomatic relations. Appealing not only to scholars, it will also fascinate anyone who takes a general interest in history, politics and culture, as well as those who just love to visit France and England.

That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British From the Sun King to the Present

Tombs, Isabelle

William Heinemann

The Paris Commune of 1871 is one of the great romantic failures in revolutionary history. Yet very little is known about its enemies, and especially the army, which first fraternized with the revolutionaries and then, two months later, crushed them with the utmost violence. This book, based on extensive archival research, is the first serious study of the role of the army in the civil war. It examines its composition and organization, its weaknesses and their effect on government policy, the steps taken to improve morale and discipline, the state of mind of officers and men and, finally, the conduct of the army in battle and the causes of the final bloodshed, in which about 20,000 Parisians were killed in the fighting or executed afterwards. Its purpose is to cast new light on the policy of the government and the problems of using an army in a civil war, and to tell for the first time the full tragedy of the suppression of the Comune, one of the bloodiest and least understood social conflicts in the history of modern Europe.

The War Against Paris, 1871

Cambridge University Press

The Paris Commune of 1871 is one of the great romantic failures in revolutionary history. Yet very little is known about its enemies, and especially the army, which first fraternized with the revolutionaries and then, two months later, crushed them with the utmost violence. This book, based on extensive archival research, is the first serious study of the role of the army in the civil war. It examines its composition and organization, its weaknesses and their effect on government policy, the steps taken to improve morale and discipline, the state of mind of officers and men and, finally, the conduct of the army in battle and the causes of the final bloodshed, in which about 20,000 Parisians were killed in the fighting or executed afterwards. Its purpose is to cast new light on the policy of the government and the problems of using an army in a civil war, and to tell for the first time the full tragedy of the suppression of the Comune, one of the bloodiest and least understood social conflicts in the history of modern Europe.

The Paris Commune was the biggest and last popular revolution in western Europe - ending the cycle of revolutions that started in 1789. The Parisians, reeling from defeat in the Franco-Prussian War set up their own revolutionary administration. Government troops eventually retook the city and took a terrible revenge: thousands died in the bloodbath that followed. The short-lived Commune and its repression cast a long shadow. It exposed deep divisions in French society and became a potent inspiration for the radical left. This stirring new study written with great zest, and a vivid sense of time and place lets the reader experience these tumultuous events at first hand and provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent research in both French and English.

The Paris Commune 1871 (Turning Points)

Longman / Pearson Education Ltd

Longman

France 1814 - 1914 (Longman History of France)

Here is an incomparably rich portrait of France in the years when the disparate elements that made up the fragmented kingdom of the ancien regime were forged into the modern nation. The survey begins with an exploration of national obsessions and attitudes. It considers the tendency to revolution and war, the preoccupation with the idea of a New Order and the deep strain of national paranoia that was to be intensified by the dramatic debacle of the Franco-Prussian War. Robert Tombs then investigates the structures of power and in Part Three he turns his attention to social identities, from the individual and family to the nation at large. When every aspect of the period has been put under the microscope, Robert Tombs draws them all into the broad political narrative that brings the book to its rousing conclusion. Bursting with life as well as learning, this is, quite simply, a tour de force.

Routledge

France 1814-1914 (Longman History of France)

Longman Pub. Group

Named a Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, The Times, Spectator, and The Economist The English first materialized as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. From the armed Saxon bands that descended onto Roman-controlled Britain in the fifth century to the travails of the Eurozone plaguing the prime-ministership of today's multicultural England, acclaimed historian Robert Tombs presents a momentous and challenging history of a people who have a claim to be the oldest nation in existence. Drawing on a wealth of recent scholarship, Tombs sheds light on the strength and resilience of English governance, the deep patterns of division among the people who have populated the British Isles, the persistent capacity of the English to come together in the face of danger, and not the least the ways the English have understood their own history, have argued about it, forgotten it and yet been shaped by it. Momentous and definitive, The English and Their History is the first single-volume work on this scale for more than half a century.

The English and Their History

Vintage

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Books by TOMBS, Robert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by TOMBS, Robert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

This Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe

This Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe

That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British From the Sun King to the Present

The War Against Paris, 1871

The War Against Paris, 1871

The Paris Commune 1871 (Turning Points)

The Paris Commune 1871 (Turning Points)

France 1814 - 1914 (Longman History of France)

France 1814-1914 (Longman History of France)

The English and Their History