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Comment by khrapkove | Hacker News Reader

The Last Kingdom by Netflix is a must watch for everyone who still have questions about Anglo-Saxons

No, go to the library or a bookshop.

I'm an IT bod but I reckon I could give you a reading list that would warm a historian's heart. Let's start with "The King in the North" by Max Adams.

Consider "Britain BC" and "Britain AD" by Francis Pryor for a start. One thing that the recent (since I was in university in the '60s) archaeology has taught us (yet again) is that no one writes history without having an angle (no pun) and the angle is often political with the result that history is very often quite misleading if not outright wrong. The notion throughout European history and archaeology that changes in physical culture (tools, pots, etc.) and even language necessarily mean wholesale changes in populations is being seriously called into question by recent archaeology and DNA studies.

I think there do seem to be apolitical writers. Of course writers and archaeologists have an angle, that's why you write a book!

Modern writers (ie not Geoff of Monmouth, Sir W Scott, int al) generally spend quite a while putting out their stall with quite a lot of reasoning, rather than "just so" style commentary. If they don't then I bin the book.

If you don't reference great sources like AC Origins, Valhalla, the Vikings TV series, etc. you will be disliked among HNers.

Please do, I'm English and fascinated by this period of history, especially with the Anglo-Saxons I guess due to my ancestry.

Marc Morris [0] has a new book out in May entitled: The Anglo-Saxons: The Making of England: 410-1066 [1]

I'm not a history nerd, but his Norman Conquest book [2] almost turned me. It's more fun than most novels.

For a non-academic approach, written by a academic, I wouldn't look anywhere else. And while you're waiting, read Norman Conquest. It's brilliant.

[0] https://twitter.com/longshanks1307 [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52025940-the-anglo-saxon... [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13065400-the-norman-conq...

You may like the British History Podcast. It is an excellent and detailed look at British history starting with prehistory and are currently covering the period just prior to the Norman invasion. They do a good job giving context and connecting events.

https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/

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