I'm happy to welcome historian Sharon Bennett Connolly to my blog today with a fantastic post on the daughters of William Marshal as part of her Ladies of Magna Carta blog tour!

I'm going to split up my submissions for the crowdsourced history reading list initiated by Chris into several topical lists (with cross references), beginning with the authors and book series I'm submitting in toto, as well as some basic reference material.  So:

ALL BOOKS BY ...
* Antonia Fraser (women's history, Tudors & Stuarts)
* Ian Mortimer (British history, particularly Middle Ages)
* Dan Jones (ditto)
* Stanley Wells (Shakespeare -- everything from biographies and history to criticism)
* John Julius Norwich (British and Mediterranean history)

* Christopher Hibbert (ditto)
* Jared Diamond (intersection of (world) history, geography, and sociology)

SERIES
* Will Durant, Ariel Durant: The Story of Civilization (11 volumes, Ancient Orient to Age of Napoleon)

* Various Authors: Fischer Weltgeschichte (published elsewhere as Weidenfeld & Nicolson Universal History / Siglo XXI Editores Historia Universal / Storia Universale Feltrinelli, and Bordas / Fayard Histoire Universelle, respectively) (36 vols., prehistory to present day)

BASIC REFERENCE
* Oxford Encyclopedia of World History
* Putzger Atlas der Weltgeschichte (unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge not translated into English -- but for my money, one of the best historical cartographical works in existence)

I have those pictured, many of which mention Maude & William rather than feature them. Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

This is a review of an advance reader's copy (ARC) provided by Viking Books through the Goodreads Giveaway program.

News stories about the 800th anniversary a couple months ago attracted me to this book. I mean I was already vaguely aware it was forced on the hated King John. Plus the Bill of Rights was influenced by it. The hope was to learn something more from this history.

Jones does a good job establishing the political climate in England which led to barons entering into an open revolt and John needing to sign this document. Apparently like the United States Constitution, the Magna Carta was a living document for decades establishing the rights granted to the people in exchange for the king to be able to tax them. The influence centuries later and it has on us even 8 later is remarkable.

Sadly, my main impression of King John is from Disney's Robin Hood movie. And while I know the story of him came later, the real John whining and sucking his thumb feels pretty correct.

Some places were kind of confusing. (The copy has notes not to quote it before the publication date, so I'll refrain from posting too much here.) Guess I can say sometimes a title is mentioned and half a page later a couple given names without context that they are linked to the title.

The text of the Magna Carta at the end was a nice touch.