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A Short History of the English People

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A Short History of the English People
AuthorJohn Richard Green
LanguageEnglish
PublisherThe Macmillan Company
Publication date
1874
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages872 pp

A Short History of the English People is a book written by English historian John Richard Green. Published in 1874, "it is a history, not of English Kings or English Conquests, but of the English People."[1]

Background and reception

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Green began work on the book in 1869, having been given only six months to live after being hit hard by disease that had plagued him throughout his life.[2] Only having around 800 pages to write on, he had to leave out much of what he wanted to include.[citation needed] Green intentionally left out the battles of England feeling they did not play a big role in the formation of the nation, saying that historians "too often turned history into a mere record of the butchery of men by their fellow men."[3] His new ideas, and omission of information that others felt important, meant Green was criticized by other historians as well as the people close to him.[citation needed]

Others thought highly of the book, including Francis Adams, who used quotations from the book in his poem The Peasants' Revolt.[4]

Notes

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  1. ^ Green, John Richard (1902). A Short History of the English People. Vol. I. London: Macmillan. p. xxiv.
  2. ^ Green, John Richard (1877). A Short History of the English People. London: Macmillan and Co. pp. iv–v.
  3. ^ Green, John Richard (1877). A Short History of the English People. London: Macmillan and Co. pp. iii.
  4. ^ Adams, Francis (1910). Songs of the Army of the Night (PDF). London: A. C. Fifield.

Bibliography

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