Summer of Blood
England's First Revolution

Another great medieval read from Dan Jones who is able to take a bunch of facts and dates and weave a story that moves at a fast pace. One thing this book left me with was this: England has had many great rulers over the years and Richard II was not one of them. Granted, he was only 14 at the time of......more

Wat Tyler and John Ball may have been immortalized in songs when they led the peasant rebellion of 1381 but the story is Richard II. He was but a child when coronated and his inherited kingdom was in a certain decline. War with France, bad weather and the uncertainty of the peasant position after th......more

This book was fantastic .Jones' style makes the book impossible to stop reading ,it's almost as if it's a novel .He perfectly captured the feeling of unrest felt by both the upper and lower classes ,and explained the difficulties that led to the revolt .He also wrote in a very objective manner ,he d......more

The True Commons! This is a fun history, effectively written as a thriller, as a near daily account in and around the summer of 1381. Reading it at the end of 2020. It is also a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of subsequent popular revolts, including the ones happening recently. The writing is an......more

Really disappointed by this, tbh. I was hoping for a balanced view that did not buy into the contemporary and depressingly still current paradigm that casts oppressed people seeking an end to their state of oppression and exploitation as “thugs” and damage to property as “violence” while still not i......more