A World by Itself A History of the British Isles

"A thought provoking and uncompromising book...[which] will surely influence the way we regard ourselves and our country (not just Britain but also Scotland) in the years to come" -- Trevor Royle Sunday Herald "[A] confident and fascinating history of Britain... Masterful... It is a volume that speaks well to our own sense of Britain today as a globalised, trading island retreating back to the edges of power... damned good" -- Tristram Hunt Observer "This single-volume history manages to combine a balanced new survey of the past with a rousing declaration of the historian's moral obligations... This is a very good book to have on the shelf" -- Christian Tyler Financial Times "I thoroughly recommend the book, written by a collection of top-hole experts in their field... Excellent" -- A. N. Wilson "[A World By Itself] tells how a small group of islands on the rain-swept edge of the Roman Empire came to shape the civilised world, effectively inventing parliamentary democracy, industrialisation, free trade and globalisation, as well as bequeathing to posterity the greatest body of literature on earth" -- Dominic Sandbrook Daily Telegraph