The Oxford History of Britain

Many of these reviews are complaining about the lack of flow from one "chapter" to another and the many different voices and styles of writing found in each. The problem we run into is that these folks view a one-volume work as a "book," and expect it to read in a similar fashion as a novel. If one approches The Oxfod History of Britain (in this instance - Illustrated) as an anthology, one's expectations are properly aligned and will allow for a greater understanding of the nature of the work; It will be a more enjoyable experience. By virtue of it being written by scholars in he field, one may expect it not to be written in a manner pleasing to the lay reader. Hint number two: it was published by a university press. That means scholarly work and not lay. As far as the addressed issue of it not being accessible to the undergraduate student, that's rubbish. This is a great monograph with a deserving place in the footnotes of many an academic history paper..... at least I intend to use it as such.