In Search of the Dark Ages

Rating:
Summary: A great accessible introduction to this field
Review: I loved the care this book took not to become too dryly academic, but at the same time to provide good, useful information. Interesting topics and figures in early English history such as Eric Bloodaxe, Stonehenge and Sutton Hoo are introduced in an engaging way, with many intersting illustrations and maps. This is the perfect book for someone looking to find out more about this subject, but not wanting to be put to sleep.

We can only hope that the television series upon which it is based will someday become available for purchase as well.

Rating:
Summary: Shining a light on the Dark Ages
Review: Michael Wood's book is a great resource for the little understood period of English history commonly known as the Dark Ages. He traces English history from the fall of Roman England, the rise of Boudicca, Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions, Alfred the Great, the little known Aethelstan, Ethelred the Unready, Eric Bloodaxe (not to be confused with Eric the Red, who discovered Greenland) and William the Conqueror (who never even learned to speak English). A good concise history with nice pictures and interesting insights.

Rating:
Summary: Shining a light on the Dark Ages
Review: Michael Wood's book is a great resource for the little understood period of English history commonly known as the Dark Ages. He traces English history from the fall of Roman England, the rise of Boudicca, Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions, Alfred the Great, the little known Aethelstan, Ethelred the Unready, Eric Bloodaxe (not to be confused with Eric the Red, who discovered Greenland) and William the Conqueror (who never even learned to speak English). A good concise history with nice pictures and interesting insights.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent "easy" history
Review: Wood is best known as a BBC "presenter" of the PBS variety, but he's also an Oxford-trained historian. His books (and television series) are solid history but still accessible. This book and his Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England are almost two halves of a whole, an investigation of what happened in England between the departure of the legions and the arrival of William's Normans, and why, and what the effects were on the further development of the "English" (. . . Celtic, Danish, Norwegian, Norman French . . .) people. Lots of maps and illustrations, lots of archaeological plats, and a nice turn of phrase in nearly every paragraph.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent "easy" history
Review: Wood is best known as a BBC "presenter" of the PBS variety, but he's also an Oxford-trained historian. His books (and television series) are solid history but still accessible. This book and his <I>Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England</I> are almost two halves of a whole, an investigation of what happened in England between the departure of the legions and the arrival of William's Normans, and why, and what the effects were on the further development of the "English" (. . . Celtic, Danish, Norwegian, Norman French . . .) people. Lots of maps and illustrations, lots of archaeological plats, and a nice turn of phrase in nearly every paragraph.