A first rate job and good reading, this panorama of English history, swiftly paced, and adroitly told. There is nothing particularly new about the method or the findings, but Maurois has gone to the salient facts, marshalled them in telling form, omitted the flag waving that characterizes the average Englishman's survey of his own history, and given us an up to the minute survey of England's story with enough of the social and economic and political background to give it substance. Essential for school, college and public libraries.