A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles. What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama's way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result. Schama successfully gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, passing down the generations as stately as a galleon, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Nonsense. Schama retells British history the way it was--as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. Schama seems almost to delight in the goriness of history. Themes returned to repeatedly include the wars between the Scots and the Irish and the Catholic/Protestant conflicts--only the Irish question remains unresolved by the new millennium. As Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy, Schama talks less of Kings and Queens but of poets and idea-makers like Orwell. Still, with his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry.


Aliases
  • Simon Schama - A History of Britain
English русский язык
  • TheTVDB.com Series ID 75678
  • Status Ended
  • First Aired September 30, 2000
  • Recent June 18, 2002
  • Network BBC One
  • Average Runtime 55 minutes
  • Genres Documentary History
  • Original Country Great Britain
  • Original Language English
  • On Other Sites IMDB TheMovieDB.com
  • Episode Screenshot Format 4:3 Screencap
  • Favorited This series has been favorited by 51 people.
  • Created February 4, 2008 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified April 10, 2023 by
    robco15
Season From To Episodes
All Seasons
Specials 5
Season 1 September 2000 November 2000 7
Season 2 May 2001 May 2001 4
Season 3 May 2002 June 2002 4
Unassigned Episodes 0
Season From To Episodes
Season 1 0
Unassigned Episodes 20
Absolute ordering places all episodes in a single ordered season. This is generally used for anime.
Season From To Episodes
Season 1 September 2000 June 2002 15
Unassigned Episodes 5
Name Number of Episodes Dates
Simon Schama 16 09/30/2000 - 06/18/2002

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