Book description
* Britain has not been successfully invaded since 1066; nor, in
nearly 1,000 years, has it known a true revolution - one that brings
radical, systemic and enduring change. The contrast with her European
neighbours - with France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Russia -
is dramatic. All have been convulsed by external warfare, revolution
and civil war - all have experienced fundamental change to their
ruling elites or their social and economic structures.
* In The Road Not Taken Frank McLynn investigates the seven
occasions when England came closest to revolution: the Peasants'
Revolt of 1381, the Jack Cade rising of 1450, the Pilgrimage of Grace
in 1536, the English Civil War of the 1640s, the Jacobite Rising of
1745-6, the Chartist Movement of 1838-48 and the General Strike of 1926.
* Mixes narrative and analysis, vividly recreating each episode and
providing compelling explanations of why social turbulence stopped
short of revolution.
* McLynn's powerful narrative explores massive themes of social,
religious and political change over seven centuries of British
history, and shows them at certain moments bursting forth to threaten
the existing order.
* Why, at these dramatic turning-points, did history finally fail to
turn? The actions of individuals at key moments had a huge influence,
as he shows, but were there underlying currents in our history which
have allowed Britain to evade the revolutions which engulfed its
neighbours? This is the deeper question which Frank McLynn explores in
this fascinating book.
Frank McLynn is a highly regarded historian, who specializes in
biographies and military history. He has written over 20 books,
including critically acclaimed biographies of Napoleon and Richard the
Lionheart. Other books include
1066
,
Stanley, 1759,
and
Marcus Aurelius.
He is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, and London University, where
he obtained his doctorate.
