Review by Choice Review
In recent decades, London's history has been a popular topic for innumerable articles and monographs about the city, as well as for general histories (e.g., Geoffrey Trease's London, a Concise History, CH, Dec'75; Christopher Hibbert's London: The Biography of a City, 1980; and Roy Porter's London: A Social History, CH, Jun'95). Sheppard, author of London 1808-1870: The Infernal Wen (CH, Nov'72), has joined the fray with his history of London from Julius Caesar to the present. This is the best general history of London to date. Sheppard incorporates current research and achieves a nice balance between economic, cultural, political, and social history. Unlike other writers, he compares London to the development of Continental cities, especially Paris, and places London in the broader context of British and European history. He is weakest on contemporary London; one would like more analysis of the acute problems facing London today. Sheppard is not a doomsayer; he has high hopes for the future of London. The book is well written and a good read, in part because it exudes the author's love of London. Extensive bibliography. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above. W. J. Hoffman Jr. Hiram College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
"When a man is tired of London . . ." For readers who are tired neither of London nor of life, this chronicle of a great city will be instructive and highly enjoyable. Sheppard, a Londoner and leading authority on his city's past, traces the evolution of a market town on the periphery of the Roman Empire into a great commercial and financial center at the heart of a gigantic sea-based empire. In his later chapters, Sheppard provides a fascinating discourse on the present and future of London and its role in the new Europe. Sheppard clearly has a deep affection for the city, its history, and its people, all of which comes through in his enthusiastic and easily digestible prose. Anglophiles, urban specialists, and those readers who merely want to learn about a great city will find a treasure trove of insight and information here. --Jay Freeman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Veteran British historian (The Treasury of London's Past) and editor (Survey of London) Sheppard serves up a concise book that covers the entire history of the city of London in under 400 pages. Divided into six sections, the book examines Londinium, the city founded by the Romans; the city's development through the Middle Ages to the year 1530; Augustan and Georgian London from 1700 to 1830; Metropolitan and Imperial London from 1830 to 1914; and the modern era through 1997, the latter aptly titled "The Uncertain Metropolis." What saves Sheppard's study from the dangers of dry summary and over-concision is the author's evident keen interest in his subject. A plus is that Sheppard's knowledge isn't limited to London; he offers pertinent comparisons with other cities throughout. However, one modern comparison with Paris, meant to point up the difference between French decisiveness and British equivocation in cultural matters, misfires: Sheppard complains that the new British library took some 26 years to build, whereas the French building was opened only eight years after French President François Mitterrand argued for it. What Sheppard omits is the international dismay over the many ills caused by the haste of the French project. No matter. Sheppard is something like a more shy and modest Braudel focusing on his own narrow isle instead of the vast, gaudy Mediterranean; he earns our thanks for his decades of concentration and for the ever-refreshing zest and affection with which he describes his beloved city. 61 illustrations. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
By freelancer Sheppard, a leading London historian, a fascinating narrative of that city'as growth from a Roman provincial encampment to a modern world metropolis, From its beginnings in 53 A.D., London was an important provincial center, and it became the focus of the revolt of Boudicaa, the Celtic queen who led a sanguinary uprising against the Romans in 60 A.D. and burned the fledgling city to the ground. After this traumatic event, London continued its growth, so that by the time of the visit of the Emperor Hadrian in 122 A.D., it had reached its zenith as a major industrial commercial center of the empire. Soon afterward, it was destroyed by fire again, and along with the Roman empire, began a long period of decay. It revived again around the year 600 with the Saxon incursions into Britain, and with the occupation of Alfred the Great in 886, it became the urban hub of a politically united England. A vast expansion of the city ensued, and by the 13th century London was truly one of Europe's primary cities and the capital of one of its principal kingdoms. Sheppard relies on archaeological evidence for the city's early periods, but increasingly on literary and secondary sources to tell the story of the city's growth into the center of Britain's world empire--interrupted periodically by traumas such as the civil wars and disorders of the Middle Ages such as the Black Death, the pestilence of the 1660s, the Industrial Revolution, and the blitz. At the apex of world influence in 1914, London's fortunes declined precipitously with those of the British Empire. By the 1990s London was a shadow of its imperial self, though still a center of world finance and a major urban center. Scholarly and meticulously researched, Sheppard's excursion through London history has the engaging quality of a walking tour given by a guide with an infectious love of his subject. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
