Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo

 

Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo by Peter Ackroyd

The fourth installment of Peter Ackroyd’s meticulous account of the history of England. This book takes place from about 1689 to around 1815; or as the subtitle states: From the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo.  As magnificent as Ackroyd’s writing is, this book was a bit of a letdown compared to the first three volumes. The main reason is that there isn’t nearly enough history here, and the book focuses too much on the culture during the time period.  I guess this is o.k. if that is what the reader is wanting, and Ackroyd has included these diversions in his other volumes.  The ratio here, though, seemed high at about 50/50. For a lover of history such as myself, one felt a bit underwhelmed.

My speculation is that once Ackroyd decided on how many volumes he would need (there would eventually be six), he then had to figure where to make his breaks in each book. How do you divide six historical accounts and have them fairly similar in length?  Not surprisingly, the later the time period, the less overall time is covered.  My guess is because, as we progress through the years, we have much more historical recordings of what actually occurred. You would have thought there would have been tons of historical stuff during the timeframe where the events of this book takes place, but that didn’t really seem to be the case here.

Yes, the main historical figures and events are covered here, but I would have liked more. For example, the American Revolution seems almost a sidebar, and I had always considered it one of the most significant episodes of history. There simply isn’t a ton of page space devoted to it in this book. I suppose this might have something to do with the fact that I am an American, and my education of the American revolution has always been studied from the viewpoint of the rebellious colonialists. Since Ackroyd is English, maybe the sentiments he puts forward is more reflective of how Mother England perceives the conflict?  In short, the author portrays the adversaries that now resided in North America as more of an annoyance than any sort of serious threat, so the English didn’t feel they needed to spend too much time and money with keeping America under its mighty wing.  They have other problems and adversaries that demand much more attention, such as the French.

Ah. The French.  There’s an awful lot of conflict here between England and France, and at this point in history, this had pretty much always been the case. So we read much more about the battles and travails between these two nations; including Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte gets an awful lot of attention devoted to him here, even though he isn’t English. Ackroyd’s feeling (as shared by most) is that Bonaparte’s influence and comings and goings were radically important to the entire continent of Europe, so much of his exploits are featured here including his famous defeat at Waterloo. This was great reading, so no complaints here. Since this event culminating in 1815, I must again address the fact that almost nothing is featured here about the second conflict with America – the War of 1812. Again, maybe England just looked at this as a minor inconvenience, and the “real” history of England demands more focus elsewhere.

Speaking of “complaints”, as I mentioned, there’s too much of the “culture” of England in this book for my taste. What gets an abnormal amount of focus here is the literature, poetry, plays, and styles of journalism. At times I felt I was reading a book about literature and not history. I confess I skimmed much of these chapters. Perhaps other readers enjoyed these huge chunks of “non” history, and Ackroyd is, in fact, a great writer.

So a bit disappointed with this one. It will be interesting to see how the next two works are presented in terms of content. I’m hoping more history and less reflections of theatre productions during the time period.