Great Tales from English History: Captain Cook, Samuel Johnson, Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin, Edward the Abdicator, and More: 3 [Hardcover]

The author Robert Lacey, writes "The job of the historian is to deal objectively with the available facts. But, history is in the eye of the beholder and also of the historian, who as a human being has feelings and prejudices of his own." In Volume 3, few if any of Lacey's prejudices are apparent as he demonstrates once again that he is one of the best, both as a historian and a storyteller.

Technical, economic, governmental and political advancement dominated this period. The monarchs of the period are succinctly covered including the German George I, the madness of George III, and the coming to the throne of the teenage Queen Victoria. Tomas Paine's idea "that the rights of man, which include equality and liberty, are God-given at birth, and that governments are only good when they protect them" became a part of American doctrine. Curiously, profits of the triangular slave trade helped fuel the spectacular economy of England in the eighteenth century...." England ended slave trade in 1807.

The engineering marvels of the Great Western Railway are noted. In 1842 Queen Victoria chose that railway for her first train trip. This was also a period of great labor unrest and abuse. Labor alliances were formed. The 1888 strike of the "match girls" pioneered techniques of protest still used today, helped the formation of trade unions all over the country and "provided an early grass roots triumph in the struggle for women's rights.

Coverage of the twentieth century is excellent.The World War I trench-warfare truce of 24 December 1914 occurred when both German and Allied troops stopped fighting and celebrated Christmas together. Lacey notes that "such a widespread flowering of peace and friendship had never been seen in the history of war...." In 1915.when a few Allied soldiers trapped behind lines in Belgium were helped to escape by Edith Cavell, matron in a Belgium nurses' training school, the Germans executed her. The worldwide outcry was enormous and the bitterness so great that there were no more Christmas truces. In 1914 the British used volunteers. Young friends marched to recruiting offices, to enlist in what became known as the "pals or chums" battalions. At the Somme nearly twenty thousand British soldiers were killed with another forty thousand wounded: "the greatest ever British loss in a single day of battle.

Most interesting is the account of Edward, Prince of Wales' abdication. Apparently, Edward had been thinking of giving up the throne long before his father's death. Later Edward was involved with Mrs. Simpson, an American divorcee, which was his excuse for abdicating. Brief but sympathetic comments are given Neville Chamberlain's well-meaning attempts to appease Hitler. Robert Lacey asks the rhetorical question regarding Chamberlain "And was he really so wrong to try to stop a conflict which....would claim the lives of more than fifty million people?"

The text coverage of World War II is revealing. The story of the little boats at Dunkirk is exaggerated; "it was the big ships of the Royal Navy that transported the vast majority of the soldiers home.." While Churchill lauded the RAF pilots in the Battle of Britain stating "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", the text notes "...every fighter pilot depended on a massive and complex pyramid of support staff--radar technicians, the observer crops...." The few were supported by "many." The text's final comment on WWII notes that Winston Churchill, taking up to eight hours,wrote all his own speeches. Churchill phrases are still quoted to this day.

Finally, the text closes with a review of the 1953 discovery of DNA 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson for which they later received a Nobel Prize

This is an easy and very enjoyable book to read. The reader need not worry about the author's objectivity.

I read Volume 3 before reading the other two volumes and I can say that I really enjoyed it. Lacey's style of writing is very accessible and he does a great job of making history fun and relevant. My only disappointment was the far-left political slant that he weaves through many of the stories. His heroes and heroines are often socialists, labor leaders, and civil rights advocates, while soldiers are only celebrated for being willing to die needlessly (but bravely) in battle. Lacey goes out of his way to celebrate the contributions of Neville Chamberlain in two of his stories, while bashing Winston Churchill in three stories. It takes a unique individual to write a history of modern England that says more bad things about Churchill than good things. It is obvious the author has an axe to grind and that axe took some of the fun out of my reading experience.

Robert Lacey has a most remarkable aptitude for relating history in an engaging manner, while still informing and educating. "The Year 1000" and the first two volumes of "Great Tales" are testaments to this. Lacey also manages to make history relevant and selects figures of note. Also to his credit is his lively, entertaining writing style.