The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III

by Andrew Roberts Narrated by Philip Stevens

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of Churchill and Napoleon

The last king of America, George III, has been ridiculed as a complete disaster who frittered away the colonies and went mad in his old age. The truth is much more nuanced and fascinating--and will completely change the way readers and historians view his reign and legacy.

Most Americans dismiss George III as a buffoon--a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The best-known modern interpretation of him is Jonathan Groff's preening, spitting, and pompous take in Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway masterpiece. But this deeply unflattering characterization is rooted in the prejudiced and brilliantly persuasive opinions of eighteenth-century revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, who needed to make the king appear evil in order to achieve their own political aims. After combing through hundreds of thousands of pages of never-before-published correspondence, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts has uncovered the truth: George III was in fact a wise, humane, and even enlightened monarch who was beset by talented enemies, debilitating mental illness, incompetent ministers, and disastrous luck.

In The Last King of America, Roberts paints a deft and nuanced portrait of the much-maligned monarch and outlines his accomplishments, which have been almost universally forgotten. Two hundred and forty-five years after the end of George III's American rule, it is time for Americans to look back on their last king with greater understanding: to see him as he was and to come to terms with the last time they were ruled by a monarch.

Editorial Reviews

JANUARY 2022 - AudioFile

Britain’s George III reigned when America dumped the tea and became the United States. Most Americans think of him as a tyrant or a buffoon, but that is far from fair or accurate. In fact, he was an early model for the role of constitutional monarch, compassionate and an opponent of slavery. This audio biography offers an in-depth portrait of a king who was often undercut by his advisers. Narrator Philip Stevens’s English accent adds ambiance without overwhelming the work for American listeners. For direct quotes, he adopts a slight German accent to reflect George II’s Hanoverian background and a slightly louder volume for George III and other strictly English-speaking figures. Stevens’s pacing makes the straightforward text easy to follow, and he varies his tone to suit the material. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

09/13/2021

“The American Revolution is a testament not to George III’s tyranny, which was fictitious, but to Americans’ yearning for autonomy,” according to this meticulously researched revisionist biography. Historian Roberts (Churchill: Walking with Destiny) paints the British monarch, who ruled from 1760 until his death in 1820, as “well-meaning, hard-working, decent, dutiful, moral, cultured and kind,” the near-polar opposite of the “wicked tyrannical brute” described by Thomas Paine and other American patriots. In Roberts’s view, George III was a loving husband and father, a champion of the Enlightenment, and a constitutional monarchist who ruled in a tumultuous era when America was reaching “political maturity” and Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War brought uncertainty about how the empire would be run and who would pay for it. Roberts blames policy mistakes such as the repeal of the Stamp Act on parliament’s factious politics; contrasts George’s “staunchly conservative” economic views with those of Prime Minister William Pitt, who oversaw “millions spent on an ever expanding theatre of conflict”; and alleges that the king suffered from “recurrent manic-depressive psychosis,” rather than a hereditary blood disorder, as was commonly believed. Though Roberts occasionally forgoes nuance in favor of salvaging his subject’s reputation, this is an eye-opening portrait of the man and his times. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist and The Times (UK)

“The deft portraits and detailed episodes Mr. Roberts provides in The Last King of America—drawing on a vast trove of documents newly digitized by the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle—bring into clear view the man at the center of it all, whose personality, principles and proper reputation have been too long obscured.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“A fair-minded portrait . . . [written] with insight and aplomb.”
—The Washington Post

“In Andrew Roberts, George has found his Boswell, but one with the wit and erudition of a Johnson. Britain’s most misunderstood monarch he may have been, but this biographer has entered into this conscientious king’s troubled mind with more than customary empathy. His superb concluding chapter is a paean to 'the nobility of George III.'”
—The American Spectator

“A compendious product of intricate investigation. Roberts has read everything. . . . The letters and diaries of delicious characters such as Fanny Burney and Lady Mary Coke are combed for color and detail, and troop movements and economic fluctuations are carefully reconstructed. It is a magnificent achievement.”
—The Spectator

“Vividly detailed . . . A capacious, prodigiously researched biography from a top-shelf historian.”
—Kirkus (starred)

“Meticulously researched . . . An eye-opening portrait of the man and his times.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A practiced hand at thoroughly detailed histories and biographies, Roberts keeps the lengthy text vivid and engaging . . . A deep, expansive study not only of George III but also of the political and social complexities of England and the United States during his reign.”
—Library Journal

“[A] persuasive interpretation, supported by a wide range of sources and argued with keen insight into political realities . . . Important, serious and timely.”
—Times Literary Supplement (UK)

“A handsome and thorough biography . . . Above all, Roberts has written a superlative political history of the period between 1760 and 1809.”
—The New Criterion

“Roberts makes a strong revisionist case for the generally maligned George III in this engrossing, brilliant biography.”
—Prospect Magazine

“Roberts’s account is masterly, combining a compelling narrative—one has to keep turning the pages even though one knows the outcome—with analysis that is both cogent and incisive. He appears to have read everything that is in the mainstream and much that isn’t, including a wide range of archival sources. . . . [A] tremendous book.”
—Literary Review

“Elegant and splendidly researched.”
—The Sunday Times (UK)

“Magisterial . . . George III is notorious for two reasons: losing America and going mad. Roberts provides a fresh and spirited account of both occurrences. . . . The result is a lengthy book that remains engaging throughout.”
—The Times (UK)

“As [Roberts's] outstanding books on Halifax, Salisbury and Churchill also demonstrate, he is a master of the biography. . . . Roberts systematically, cogently and helpfully reinterprets his subject’s role and reputation.”
—History Today

“Elegant and comprehensive . . . Roberts is our most prodigious biographer.”
—The Daily Mail

“Richly evidenced and scrupulously argued. . . . [The Last King of America] consolidates Roberts’s position as one of the greatest biographers in the English language today.”
—Daily Telegraph

“Teems with detail, ideas and elegance. Roberts is a great writer—and this is one of his greatest achievements.”
—Aspects of History

“Superb . . . A book so diligently researched cannot fail to be rich in curious detail and amusing turns of phrase. There are plums on almost every page.”
—The Oldie

“A powerful reappraisal.”
—The Irish Post

Library Journal

11/01/2021

George III of England: cold-hearted, cruel, and villainous? Not so, posits historian Roberts (winner of the Wolfson History Prize for Salisbury: Victorian Titan) in his new biography, which while decidedly sympathetic to its subject—sometimes to excess—nevertheless presents a convincing case. This is not the first revisionist treatment of the monarch, who reigned from 1760 until his death in 1820, but Roberts's extensive use of primary-source letters, essays, and other personal documents recently made available by the Georgian Papers Programme offers much fresh evidence that George III was not the arrogant and vindictive tyrant portrayed in popular culture, but rather an intelligent and conscientious king whose idealistic goals were stymied by political frictions and the misfortune of mental illness. A practiced hand at thoroughly detailed histories and biographies, Roberts keeps the lengthy text vivid and engaging as he untangles the inciting factors of American Revolution and the various Parliamentary conflicts that dogged George III's reign, especially after the Seven Years' War. The author has a deep knowledge of this era, having previously written the bestselling Napoleon: A Life. VERDICT A deep, expansive study not only of George III but also of the political and social complexities of England and the United States during his reign.—Kathleen McCallister, William & Mary Libs., Williamsburg, VA

JANUARY 2022 - AudioFile

Britain’s George III reigned when America dumped the tea and became the United States. Most Americans think of him as a tyrant or a buffoon, but that is far from fair or accurate. In fact, he was an early model for the role of constitutional monarch, compassionate and an opponent of slavery. This audio biography offers an in-depth portrait of a king who was often undercut by his advisers. Narrator Philip Stevens’s English accent adds ambiance without overwhelming the work for American listeners. For direct quotes, he adopts a slight German accent to reflect George II’s Hanoverian background and a slightly louder volume for George III and other strictly English-speaking figures. Stevens’s pacing makes the straightforward text easy to follow, and he varies his tone to suit the material. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2021-08-25
A revisionist portrait of a maligned monarch.

English historian and biographer Roberts, winner of the Wolfson History Prize and many other honors, draws on abundant archival sources to create a deeply textured portrait of George III (1738-1820), whom he calls “the most unfairly traduced sovereign in the long history of the British monarchy.” Countering the characterizations of George as pompous and cruel, promulgated in such plays as Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III and Hamilton, Roberts argues that the king was an intelligent, astute leader, dedicated to upholding the British Constitution. In addition to his passion for the arts and sciences; he was “well-meaning, hard-working, decent, dutiful, moral, cultured and kind.” A shy child, he was by no means backward, although his own mother thought he “was not quick.” Nevertheless, Roberts found that “his exercise books in the Royal Archives show that George was perfectly competent at reading and writing English by the age of nine.” By 15, he could translate classical texts, including philosophy. His father died when he was 12, and his grandfather was cruel and abusive, leading young George to see as his “surrogate father” John Stuart, a handsome, charming man 25 years older, who “introduced George to many of the artistic and intellectual passions of his life, and to the people who stimulated them.” Stuart long served as George’s confidant, adviser, and, briefly, prime minister. Roberts capably traces the complicated machinations that led to George’s selection of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz as his wife; the roiling politics of 18th-century England; the gossip and power play that threatened his authority; the American colonists’ inevitable break from British rule (nothing to do with taxes, Roberts argues); and five episodes of manic-depressive psychosis—not, as many historians have believed, porphyria. Vividly detailed, the author’s life of George is comfortably situated in the context of British, European, and Colonial history.

A capacious, prodigiously researched biography from a top-shelf historian.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177054179
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	11/09/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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