History of Britain

A subject about which I have some interest, and the subject (& title) of a documentary series, the first volume of which finished last night, courtesy of Netflix. The highly-regarded Simon Schama produces and narrarates this generally fascinating series, which tends to focus a little more on compelling individual personalities than it does the some of the other minutea cultural history; at least, once it gets beyond the stone age. This particular installment actually included the first three episodes of the series: Beginnings, Conquest!, and Dynasty; and, in keeping with what is generally the case after I have consumed non-fiction, I've retained very little I would be able to actually draw upon in a conversation. I just have to trust that there's some sort of "whole is greater than sum of its parts" way in which my mind is expanding as a result of such exercises.

A couple notable things that did lodge themselves in my mind:

• A section on the Orkney village of Skara Brae, where a storm unearthed a stone-age village with a series of dwellings and evidence of culture & social structure far beyond anything that had been discovered from that period. See the link for what appears to be a really great Wikipedia article on the place (though I haven't actually read through it yet).
• English kings were pretty much all dickheads and goofballs. At least, pre-Magna Carta. Most of them were of Norman descent (not even English speaking), and even their rock-star King, Richard the Lionharted, had a pretty ugly run ending with pretty much the bankruptcy of England buying back his freedom after he had been captured during a Crusade.

Much much more in there. A lot of good stuff. I wouldn't send it out as a general recommendation, but anyone with an interest in this subject would find it quite interesting.