Basic Books
Island Stories: An Unconventional History of Britain
Key Metrics
- David Reynolds
- Basic Books
- Hardcover
- 9781541646926
- 9.4 X 6.1 X 1.2 inches
- 1.1 pounds
- History > Europe - Great Britain - 20th Century
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
When the British voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the country's future was thrown into doubt. So, too, was its past. The story of British history is no longer a triumphalist narrative of expanding global empire, nor one of ever-closer integration with Europe. What is it now?
In Island Stories, historian David Reynolds offers a multi-faceted new account of the last millennium to make sense of Britain's turbulent present. With sharp analysis and vivid human detail, he examines how fears of decline have shaped national identity, probes Britain's changing relations with Europe, considers the creation and erosion of the United Kingdom, and reassesses the rise and fall of the British Empire. Island Stories is essential reading for anyone interested in global history and politics in the era of Brexit.
Author Bio
David S. Reynolds is recognized internationally as a leading authority in American literature, U.S. history, and biography. He is author or editor of sixteen books and is a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, and the Wall Street Journal.
David S. Reynolds is the author or editor of sixteen books, most recently Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times (2020), which was selected as one of the Top Ten Books of the Year of the Wall Street Journal and among the best books of the year of the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and Kirkus Reviews.
His previous books include Lincoln's Selected Writings, Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America, Walt Whitman’s America; John Brown, Abolitionist; Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson; and Beneath the American Renaissance.
Three of his books have been listed among the New York Times’s “Notable Books of the Year,” and one has been chosen among the New Yorker’s “Favorite Books of the Year.” He has been interviewed more than 100 times on radio and TV, on shows including NPR’s Morning Edition, Fresh Air, Weekend Edition, and The Diane Rehm Show, ABC’s The John Batchelor Show, and C-SPAN’s After Words, Brian Lamb’s Book Notes, and Book TV.
He is a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, and the Wall Street Journal, and is included in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Education, and Who’s Who in the World.
Reynolds was born in Providence, Rhode Island. For much of his childhood he lived in West Barrington, Rhode Island, in a home attached to the Nayatt Point Lighthouse (built in 1828).
He received a B.A. magna cum laude from Amherst College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to the Graduate Center, he taught American literature, American studies, and U. S. history at Northwestern University, Barnard College, New York University, Rutgers University, Baruch College, and the Sorbonne–Paris III.
- Awards and Grants
- The Bancroft Prize
- the Lincoln Prize
- the Christian Gauss Award
- the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award
- the Ambassador Book Award
- the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award
- finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
Source: CUNY
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