by A. L. Morton, 1938 (October 2019)
This review of the history of
England was unexpectedly rich and insightful. Morton in his epilogue says that
the book is not so much history as an exercise in historical interpretation. It
is complex and ambitious and for me was a facinating overview of the economic
and political forces that created Britain up to modern times. In a little over
500 pages, this book provides a densely packed summary from the pre-Roman
tribes to the early 20th century.
I was initially looking for an
overview of British history from a common person’s point of view, like Colin
James’ excellent Cambridge Illustrated History of France. Although Morton’t book touches on the lives of common people, it’s focus
is more to create an understanding for readers who are common people so that they
can understand the forces that shape their lives. It does not dwell on detail
much but focuses on the broad social, political, economic and technological forces
as they were understood by a left-leaning historian writing in the 1930s. Morton
sees history as a continuous process of
change and class struggle, not as an abstract movement but as people struggling
to gain class interests that are important in their everyday lives. When
talking about the shift from agricultural and craft production to the early phases
of the industrial revolution, for example, he shows how trading and
transportation technology created markets for factory products, but also how working
people resisted through organized rebellions over centuries as well as through
their individual attempts to protect their livelihoods.
Although well grounded in historical
fact, Morton does not hold back his opinions and he can be quite witty in his
descriptions, which makes the density of the text easier to work through.
I suspect Morton’s
interpretation is open to some dispute and updating, but he provides an
understanding of why British society was shaped the way it was, such as why the
Romans entered Britain (to prevent their suporting the Gauls) and eventually
left; how feudalism worked in the middle ages, but gave way to centralized
political structures; how Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army changed contemporary
warfare and politics; and how privatization of the commons led to both the exploitation
and the growth of the industrial working class. I can imagine this book being a
text for a working class discussion group, easily providing enough points in
each chapter to stimulate an evening’s education sessions for a year. In fact, this
is not a quick read – it took me months to read it because there is so much in
each chapter that I wanted to absorb each section before moving on to the next.
There’s too much in each brief section to quickly read and move on. It’s well
worth the time, though.
As a Canadian, we learn some
highlights of English history, such as the Magna Carta and the Reformation. We
get little detail, however, and less understanding. (We don’t learn that the Magna
Carta was ignored and largely irrelevant until it suited bourgeious ideology in
the struggle against the Stuarts, when it was brought out of storage and
revered.) Although this book doesn’t cover the last half of the last century, it
does give a basis for an understanding that goes far beyond historical facts. It
added a great deal to my recent vacation in Britain, notwithstanding that it ends
in the period leading up to the cataclysm of the Second World War.
