A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 by Andrew Roberts

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
Andrew Roberts
Published in Great Britain in 2006 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 13:9780297850762 The Orion Publishing Group Ltd.

736 pp. 27 illus.

Andrew Roberts is the author of a number of History Books on specific topics. He has chosen this particular topic in order to complete the remarkable four volume work of Winston Churchill "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples - their origins, their quarrels, their misfortunes and their reconciliation" which was written to encompass time up to the end of January 1901.

I choose to read this book because the title just "jumped" out at me and given my personal history (100% English-speaking ancestry albeit likely Gaelic before Old English) the book quite literally intrigued me. I simply had to read it and so I have done so. Certainly I also love to read history and particularly factual history (i.e. documentaries).

The author, Roberts, was the year 2000 Wolfson History Prize winner for his work on the life of Lord Salisbury. He was elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Literature in 2001.

Earlier, I explained why he wrote on this particular time period for English speaking people. But also he states on page 597 that "One of the purposes of this book is to explain how English-speaking colonisation, principally of course of the United States but also crucially of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean - though not Ireland, which has a very different identity - has succeeded triumphantly, and that those states represent the last, best hope for Mankind. Far from being 'entirely insignificant', the spread of the English-speaking peoples' political culture has been the most significant historical development since the invention of gunpowder and the printing press."

The main characters in this book are the English-speaking peoples themselves in the twentieth century of this world. He defines this to be all the people who speak English as their mother tongue (no ethnicity is particularly claimed other than English being one's mother tongue).

The book is about the perils and trials of the English-speaking peoples in the twentieth century. His book covers what are the considered to be the four world struggles of the twentieth century namely German Nationalism, Axis Fascism, Soviet Communism and Islamic Terrorism. There is an introduction and seventeen chapters which cover the entire time period including the Boer War at the beginning of the century through World War I, the rise of Fascism, World War II, the Cold War between Soviet Communism and the democratic capitalistic West, the threat of Terrorism in which we currently find ourselves.

The Introduction brought me back to my childhood sitting at my Grandfather's knee listening to the stories of Empire - the British Empire. For he was truly a Brit transplanted from his beloved England to work on the Canadian Railway System and until the death of my grandmother in 1940 always planning to return to England to live like the English did in those days. They would go out to serve in the colonies and then return home to retire and enjoy the country of their birth. To him, England was the greatest country in the world and indeed as the introduction points out England was at the height of her power and judicious in the way that she established her Empire the world over giving back far more than she took in teaching the rule of law, efficiency in commerce and good democratic government. Not all the colonies took advantage of this teaching but those that did are still prospering and her people's are, for the most part, content.

Chapter I - Shouldering the White Man's Burden. Being Canadian, I liked the way the author talks about us. My strong attachment to my Englishness in childhood has gradually replaced itself with my Canadian identity. I acquired my Canadian identity by going to England and discovering that I really wasn't English; I was Canadian but with a lot of English ways simply because my grandparents were totally English and my father by the age of nine had acquired a good deal of Englishness before he came to Canada with his parents.

Chapter II - America Arrives. Being pro-American (and I always have been), I could understand the ideas that the author constantly puts before us chapter by chapter. When he talks about the "Special Relationship" between English-speaking people I can understand that. When he uses this term to refer to the British-American Entente I have to agree that it does exist. English people like New York; they like to go to the United States and they may come here to Canada but mostly it is cold, it is enormous, there is only one main highway and it is just so nice in the United States so they go there in very large numbers to visit, to live. Really now that I have spent some time in England, I have to say that Americans and British have some very strong characteristics in common. This chapter mostly talks about America becoming the world's powerhouse and her ability to convert rapidly from peace to war footing when the need arises.

Chapter III - The First Assault: Prussian Militarism 1914-17. Again I love the way he talks about Canada. I am proud of my country. In the First World War, our people geared up to fight totalitarianism; to help the French people to fight the Germans and we paid an enormous price which stagnated our population growth for a generation. It was this stagnation that made us multilingual. There simply weren't enough British people who wanted to emigrate (and they were needed at home to fill the ranks of those who had fallen there) to Canada and keep us British and so we welcomed with open arms many many Europeans who wanted to escape the horror of war in Europe (they came from all over Europe but especially from Eastern Europe and the names out west reflect the Ukranian, Russian, Georgian and many others who came at that time). But he also talked about English-speaking peoples working together to make peace happen and he does it very well.

Chapter IV - Peace Guilt: 1918-19. As a child, I learned from my grandfather that the cause of the second world war was the fracturing of the League of Nations and allowing Germany to re-arm. Roberts captures this totally in the chapter and again talks about the "Special Relationship" not being there and so the world was cast into War once again.

Chapter V - American Energy: 1920-9. Isolationism was the route that was taken and it is hard to argue which was the best method of dealing with Hitler. America became strong in this time period which the author clearly relates.

Chapter VI - Capitalism at Bay 1929-31. The Fall of the stock market and the Great Depression reflected upon and how America faced this tragedy. The author has missed an opportunity here I think to talk about why the English-speaking democracies (namely in North America) did not get involved in world politics. Canada was in desperate straits - the dust bowl in the Prairies had our farmers starving. Entire families were on the road trying to find work to feed themselves. They were dreadful times in North America and I think we suffered the worst here.

Chapter VII - The Second Assault: Fascist Aggression 1931-9. No one was at this point in time ready to fight the trench warfare of the First World War. Time was needed to prepare to halt the aggression to come. Personally, I think the English-speaking peoples did the best they could do. The author does not agree with me but I am not entirely convinced that there was a better way.

Chapter VIII - Divided and Faltering: 1939-41. Definitely I have to agree with the author that France seeking an armistice was the most disastrous result that could have happened. Did fewer French people die under the heel of Germany than would have died if they had resisted pulling back into the Pyrennes where the Germans could not have won? One will never know the answer to that. I share his feelings about General DeGaulle. After all here in Canada his comments on "Vive la Quebec Libre" in Montreal probably was one of the prime reasons that Pierre Laporte was murdered and James Cross taken prisoner (British Consular official). Oh, he is not a popular man here in Canada not even in Quebec I do not think. They had to carry the shame of the death of Pierre Laporte and the six week captivity of James Cross. Truly Britain and the Commonwealth standing alone against the might of Germany through this time period will go down in history as one of the greatest survivals of a people as he states.

Chapter IX - United and Conquering: 1942-4. The entry of the USA into the war was the Great Entente once again in place and the might of the English-speaking peoples were able to, once again, stem the tide of Nazism and deny them their victory. But he also accounts one of the greatest reasons for this victory also being the Russian people as they fought the Nazis to a standstill at enormous cost to themselves (over 25 million Russians are said to have died in the conflict; the most of any country).

Chapter X - Normandy to Nagasaki: 1944-5. The success of Normandy will always be the greatest happening in terms of conflict between peoples in the story of mankind I think. The death on the beaches for our brave soldiers coupled with the welcome from the people of France to these brave young men as they forced the Germans back. The Great Entente was in full swing and it continued all the way to the final bombing of Japan. We looked at Armageddon as people and we moved back away from it because that is what Nuclear War is. Clearly captured in this chapter.

Chapter XI - The Third Assault: Soviet Communism 1945-9. In the world of human conflict we learned that we can not always be all things to all people and the author laments with us that it was so as the Iron Curtain descended across Europe.

Chapter XII - Cold War Perils: The 1950s. The author carefully paints the picture of the errors of the English-speaking peoples and the successes. The carnage of the Second World War left us scarred but America was now strong. The author clearly sees the role that the United States has played and continues to play so effectively in the world. Why does man only understand threats? Where is that peaceful uplifted plain of Churchill's speeches? I think that I can sense that cry in this chapter as well. Now I am remembering this time period for myself. The depression felt by some as the Cold War was at its height; where there was fear of nuclear war.

Chapter XIII - Civic Americanus Sum: The 1960s. We continue the story of the Cold War and the author is somewhat negative towards his own country. He can see the difficulties that England is suffering but has his own ideas on a solution. The chapter makes fascinating reading.

Chapter XIV - the Long, Dismal, Drawling Tides: The 1970s. This is a period that I was mostly immersed in child rearing and self employment at home proofreading and copyediting. I continued to read about world politics and have my own opinions on much of this time period. The author's views are interesting but did not cause me to change any of my thoughts to be honest.

Chapter XV - Attritional Victory: The 1980s. Again still immersed in child rearing and self employed my time was not spent thinking about history too much. Reading through this chapter I found myself agreeing with much of what he said and he has been careful not to talk too much about Canada. We were heavily involved in Peace Keeping and as a country we have been on more missions than anyone for the United Nations (it was after all the brain child of Lester B Pearson). There was a little doubt in my mind as to why he was avoiding us but he did see this as a great entente time between England and the USA once again. President Reagan has brought an end to the Cold War (other helpers as well) but the author gives him a great deal of the credit.

Chapter XVI - The Wasted Breathing Space: 1990 - 11 September 2001. I am back to work again and meeting Muslims for the first time in the work environment. I was working in the hospital. I liked them; they were like me rather religious and liked to have our prayer times with God. I could understand them at least I thought I could until 9/11. I couldn't understand anti-Americanism - no one deserves to be attacked so cruelly as that day. All those planes trying to land here in Canada at our small airports. It was amazing that there were no tragedies. We did our best. I felt that the book was weak in not acknowledging Canada's part in all of that. But he is in England and quite possibly never thought about that.

Chapter XVII - The Fourth Assault: Islamic Terrorism and its De Facto Allies: 11 September 2001 - 15 December 2005. I did think it was a pity that the book had to end before the meltdown of the New York Stock Exchange, the crashing of the banks world wide and all of that. It would have been interesting to read his thoughts. Perhaps there will be a sequel. The author does capture this time very well. Will Islam be able to control the extremists in the midst? The book leaves us thinking about that but always the author sees the Great Entente of the English-speaking peoples as being powerful enough to withstand these threats.

Conclusion. The Conclusion is interesting as he wonders if there is another crisis in the midst oncoming. He doesn't name it but wonders as China develops where this will lead the world.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about long spans of history. He is a highly accomplished author and the book is very well sourced.