The Norman Conquest Paperback – December 15, 2014

I’ve been on an English history binge lately and of the number of books that caught my eye, this is one. The Norman Conquest was an event I’ve heard of. William the Conqueror is someone I’ve heard of. However, I’ve never really known the full story of this event and what a time of change the 11th century was for England. This book did a fine job covering all of this. You get background on what lead to the Conquest. William’s rise. What happened in England that lead to this all culminating with the battle of Hastings. Then the endgame. Rebellion. William’s rule. Domesday. Etc… There is a lot of info in this book and you’ll surely come away learning a great deal about this pivotal event and major players who were involved.My only con is the second half of the book is good, but not as good as the first half. A lot of interesting stuff happens during William’s rule after Hastings, but it’s like when you have a TV show. Amazing first season and everything after is good, but not on the same level. However, the author still did a fine job tying everything up.One last thing to add is I do want to praise the author. I think he wrote a nice unbiased book on this event and didn’t veer off into much speculation as we don’t truly know how some things really went down like the death of King Harold. While we do have sources covering these events, some are biased. Some are more negative. Some down right propaganda. The author did fine work weaving all of this together. Letting us know where there might be a bias, who may be more correct on how an event unfolded, giving credit where credits due, etc… Plus I like that he cited his source as he went along. So shoutout to the author!

Hallmarks of a quality presentation of history: the ability to create tension despite the reader already knowing the outcome, events and their impact told from ground level, avoidance of conjecture unless explicitly described as such, and encouraging the positing and examination of theories and how they might apply today.The author's writing style is confident, well-structured, and highly readable. He infuses his analysis with the all too human traits of his subjects, making millennium-past events come alive. Or, in simpler more amusing terms, he has me thinking "save the drama fo ya mama!" at the family dysfunction taken to extremes, from rebellion to assassination and the rest.For me, good history book storytellers present the options for our own interpretation. They give us the pros and cons, the various points of view, available facts, and then provide the conclusions they feel are most logical. This approach allows me to do the same. No spoon feeding here.Here's a thinker: did the English despise so much, did the vulnerability from the humiliation of being invaded and defeated run so deep that, for the next near millennium, they tried to defeat *that* by doing the same to any nation or group of people they were able in creating an ever expanding empire? Something fed the multi-generational mindset. Was the Conquest it?Morris does conclude that the long-term processes of invasion, conquest, rebellion, assimilation, and finally intermingling forever blur the cultural lines while birthing an entirely new one... which become our history. This has been and continues to be demonstrated time and again.Many of the historical actors in this play are direct ancestors of mine. Should be no surprise this adds a lot of fun in reading about everything from the mundane to the insane about them. :)

A very thorough and well researched bookI was especially drawn to the detail regarding the Domesday Book since I have ancestors mentioned in it. It is the most complete description of the Conquest I have read and I had to marvel at the genius of William in binding the loyalty of his Lords an barons by bequeathing land to them to own and defend in his name. I recommend this book without reservation.Byron Prater