"This book will surely be recognised as the best single-volume concise history of England - lively, authoritative, and yet personal and humane. Only Elton could have written it." Michael Clanchy

"This work is thoughtful, witty, and graceful in style, a marvel of compression ... Elton argues forcefully that the English formed, and were formed by, a unique reconciliation of individual freedom with monarchically supervised order. Like Joseph Strayer's on The Medieval Origins of the Modern State (1986), this splendid work is a brief distillation of a lifetime of thoughtful scholarship and deep reflection." Choice

"Anyone may enjoy this book." The Times

"A study that is both authoritative and individualistic, showing a full awareness but not a full acceptance of recent research." Teaching History