The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

This is a hard book to review, because whether it deserves five stars or 2-3 stars is going to depend pretty heavily on why you're reading it. If you're reading it for academic purposes, it's really wonderful - it's one of the very, very few sources that we have for early English history and it's a......more

It depends on why you read this. Historically it's extremely important. Reference-wise, it's a huge help, not only for religious things but the time-period itself in English history. Literature-wise it's not the best thing you can spend your time on and if you're on it for escapism then you're an id......more

Pleasingly written and enjoyable, and also rather astonishing for its inclusion of numerous miracles recorded with the same style and careful attention to detail as more readily verified historical events. Bede is deservedly celebrated - not only as a well-studied and reliable historian (supernatura......more

What Is History? Edward Hallett Carr asked in the title of his famous book. Nothing objective he argued, saying, “The belief in a hard core of historical facts existing objectively and independently of the interpretation of the historian is a preposterous fallacy, but one which it is very hard to er......more

For all the unexcitement and tedium of the events of which he tells, Bede's narrative is surprisingly engaging (and unintentionally humorous as he obsesses over the issue of the proper date of Easter). It reads much like Caesar's Gallic Wars with the addition of letters and other primary sources—Gre......more