The Hanoverians: The History of a Dynasty (Dynasties) Paperback – Illustrated, 20 Nov. 2006

The book answered my questions. They're less interesting than earlier dynasties basically because during th eir reigns the monarchy became less significant politically

234 years of unpopular kings span the gap between the reigns of two popular English queens, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. Of the years between 1603 and 1837, the Hanoverian kings ruled for 123 of them (1714 - 1837) and presided over an unmanageable wad of history - the birth struggle of representative politics between 1701's Act of Succession and 1832's Reform Act, Peter the Great's Russia, Frederick II's Prussia and three kinds of France (from belligerent Bourbons to revolutionaries to Napoleon), as well as global colonial wars. In a couple of hundred pages, this book equips you with enough secure knowledge on which to build an understanding of the period, which will take thousands of pages to comprehend fully. Only about a quarter of it is exhausting for people unfamiliar with Europe's political dramatis personae, but shoulder-barge your way through and you will emerge with a strong context for more study of the 18th century. For this alone, it deserves to be read. You won't like the Georges, but you will be fascinated by at least one of an an endless list of the people, places and institutions they sponsored or suffered from - whether it be Walpole, two Pitts, Handel, the Royal Academy, Buckingham Palace, the Carolinas, Georgia, Melbourne or Adelaide. I am now in a position to take the long way round, because this book has given me some idea of possible routes through the chaotic 18th century, but that will take much more than 232 pages. Before he undertook this, the author must have know he had little chance of answering more questions than he introduced, but went ahead anyway. I'm glad he did.