Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12731 in Books
• Published on: 1981-08-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

An Elegant Little History
In this short but well written narrative, Howarth paints moving portraits of King Edward the Confessor, Harold of England, William of Normandy, Earl Tostig, King Harald Hardrada, the people of England and other players in the Norman conquest. Howarth does not conceal his views, admitting at the outset that he "would have liked King Harold, heartily disliked King Edward the Confessor, felt sorry for Earl Tostig and terrified of Duke William, and found nothing whatever to say to King Harald Hardrada of Norway." This is history with a bit of passion, which makes it all the more enjoyable for the reader.

"1066" will also make you appreciate how hard it is to know anything about a time like the Middle Ages, when very few people could read and write and those who could were invariably working for whoever won the latest battle. It will also give a sense of how contingent history is, of how the world might have become a very different place if a few events had happened in a different order. As it was, William the Conqueror arrived at exactly the right time, while King Harold was at the other end of England crushing King Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. What would have happened if William's fleet had been destroyed in a storm, or if he had arrived in England in the summer of 1066, when King Harold was ready and able to meet him? We'll never know--King Harold and his army arrived at Hastings exhausted and depleted, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Howarth approaches 1066 as if it were the stuff of a novel, and he has been criticized for doing so. I don't know whether Howarth is perfectly accurate, or whether his "spin" on the story is correct--but the same can be said of the most boring and heavily footnoted history that anyone cares to name. For those who enjoy history but also prize elegant and engaging storytelling, this book is a joy to read.

If you like "1066," you will want to consider two other books: James Reston's "The Last Apocalpyse," a vivid description of life and strife in Europe at the turn of the first millennium; and Lacey and Danziger's "The Year 1000," which explains what life may have been like for a person living in England in that distant time.

Engaging book on precarious year in English history
To put it simply, Howarth's book "1066, The Year of the Conquest" is a biased, factually-based, historical account of the year 1066 in England, encompassing both the plights of the royals AND the common people of the island, along with the English's neighbors to the south and east. If you are looking for the play-by-play of the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror's reign in England, you've come to the wrong book, my friend.
Howarth examines just that profound year in English history, and does not go in full detail about what happened before or after 1066.

Like other reviewers, I did notice Howarth's unabashed bias to the English in this work, but his non-objective feelings don't overwhelm the text. A jovial example is that not once, is the Norman king referred to as "William the Conqueror;" in fact, he is introduced to the reader as "William the Bastard."
That aside, I had a splendid time reading this short work (only 200 pages). Howarth's writing style keeps the reader engrossed and he has a gift of turning the historical facts into a readable and impassioned story. One thing I really liked was the absence of footnotes. In the text, Howarth will cite the text he is using, what biases it may have, and how accurate it might be with regards to first-person accounts, years after 1066 it was written, etc. This citation style works extremely well in the text and I wish more authors would use it.

The best part of the book might be the first chapter where Howarth chooses a random village and takes a Howard Zinn approach at it by explaining what the common folk did at that time, what they ate, where they lived, etc. It really gives a reader a better understanding of the Middle Ages, after all, not everyone got to live in a castle. Another nice feature of the book is the friendly maps. Although there are only six maps, they are easy to read, they include all the places Howarth is writing about, and show the routes of the invasions.

I would recommend this to any casual history reader or to anyone who has viewed the Bayeux Tapestry. Instead of trying to decipher the pictures of the tapestry, by reading this book you will get the full story and it will make it easier in seeing what the tapestry is trying to depict.

History at its very best
I first read this book back in the late 1970s when it was first published and since then I've read nearly every book by David Howarth. He is the consumate popular historian, who makes history really come alive for the reader.

1066 is probably his best book and is certainly my favourite book of history. He takes the reader through the main events of that year, introduces the major players in the story he is unfolding, and speculates about their motives and on the way history has dealt with the story (ie history comes down to us as told by the winners).

He makes people like King Harold, William the Bastard and the amazing Harald Hardrada of Norway real for the reader. At the end you are left wondering how English history might have been if just one of the events he descibes had turned out differently.

A truly wonderful book - history at its very best.