A survey of the English experience through a thousand years and more, this book concentrates on the lasting characteristics of a people who early on discovered the fact of a national identity. The outstanding hallmarks of this experience were the existence of a strong central authority (in the monarchy), the provision of a system of law, and with these two the possibility of preserving individual rights and liberties in the face of a long sequence of historical vicissitudes.

About the Author
Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton was fellow of Clare College, Cambridge since 1954 and between 1967 and 1983 was Professor of English Constitutional History. He was President of the Royal Historical Society between 1972 and 1976, of the Selden Society between 1983 and 1985 and of the Ecclesiastical History Society in 1983-84.

Reviews
"This book will surely be recognised as the best single-volume concise history of England - lively, authoritative, and yet personal and humane. Only Elton could have written it." Michael Clanchy

"This work is thoughtful, witty, and graceful in style, a marvel of compression ... Elton argues forcefully that the English formed, and were formed by, a unique reconciliation of individual freedom with monarchically supervised order. Like Joseph Strayer's on The Medieval Origins of the Modern State (1986), this splendid work is a brief distillation of a lifetime of thoughtful scholarship and deep reflection." Choice

"Anyone may enjoy this book." The Times

"A study that is both authoritative and individualistic, showing a full awareness but not a full acceptance of recent research." Teaching History

Book Information
ISBN 9780631196068
Author Geoffrey Elton
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 369g
Dimensions(mm) 250mm * 200mm * 15mm