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54 reviews for:
All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class
Tim Shipman
4.29 AVERAGE
54 reviews for:
All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class
Tim Shipman
4.29 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Rereading before the third book comes out, glad I'm Australian.
What a behemoth. I'm glad I read it, but some advice to people who are not intense politics buffs:
- skip the first two chapters. They cover too many years and people in too little time, and they are the first 5-8% of the book, so highly likely you'll stop reading at that point. Skim after you've read the rest of the book of you're keen.
- read this on Kindle rather than as a paperback. I found the X-Ray feature very useful, along with highlights, and never even realised this book was a mammoth brick until I accidentally saw it in a bookshop. Psychologically much better for you.
The author has had access to most of the big players in the EU Referendum so the Game Of Thrones nature of it all has been captured from multiple sides quite perfectly. As a Remainer, I've come out of the book much more sympathetic to David Cameron and Theresa May, and have seen parts of the Vote Leave campaign that I truly admire. I'd say a Brexiter would come out of this with a better understanding of why the immigration debate was so toxic, and maybe see some truth in all that Project Fear predicted, especially as now over a year has passed.
Bottom line - worth the reading time and effort, feel free to skim over when the going gets tough (the author quite often errs on the too many details side of the line), and keep an open mind.
- skip the first two chapters. They cover too many years and people in too little time, and they are the first 5-8% of the book, so highly likely you'll stop reading at that point. Skim after you've read the rest of the book of you're keen.
- read this on Kindle rather than as a paperback. I found the X-Ray feature very useful, along with highlights, and never even realised this book was a mammoth brick until I accidentally saw it in a bookshop. Psychologically much better for you.
The author has had access to most of the big players in the EU Referendum so the Game Of Thrones nature of it all has been captured from multiple sides quite perfectly. As a Remainer, I've come out of the book much more sympathetic to David Cameron and Theresa May, and have seen parts of the Vote Leave campaign that I truly admire. I'd say a Brexiter would come out of this with a better understanding of why the immigration debate was so toxic, and maybe see some truth in all that Project Fear predicted, especially as now over a year has passed.
Bottom line - worth the reading time and effort, feel free to skim over when the going gets tough (the author quite often errs on the too many details side of the line), and keep an open mind.
funny
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced
Remarkable a journalist could maintain this quality and such a comprehensive and complicated story in a book produced in the same year as the events themselves. Unusually truthful about the utter contingency of complex political processes and the diverse rationales and explanations available to plausibly make sense of them.
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
This is an interesting and very detailed description of the Brexit campaign and referendum. Overall, I enjoyed it, although there were a few flaws.
1) It's excessively detailed. There's way too much information and detail in the book which caused the book to drag. After every single minor event we are given the opinion and interpretation of half a dozen advisors.
2) It's set inside a bubble. If you weren't active in Westminster or the media campaign, you don't appear in this book. According to this book, the entire Brexit campaign was fought in the media by people in London.
3) The focus is incredibly narrow, the book mainly talks about Tories and the Leave campaign, Labour is an afterthought and no one else is mentioned. The author seemed to view Brexit mainly as an internal matter for the Conservative Party, rather than something that affected the whole country.
4) It suffers from hindsight bias. Every decision by the Leave campaign is treated as crucial to its success and every decision by the Remain side is treated as a mistake. Even things that were seen as successes are rewritten as mistakes. This gives an inaccurately one-sided view.
1) It's excessively detailed. There's way too much information and detail in the book which caused the book to drag. After every single minor event we are given the opinion and interpretation of half a dozen advisors.
2) It's set inside a bubble. If you weren't active in Westminster or the media campaign, you don't appear in this book. According to this book, the entire Brexit campaign was fought in the media by people in London.
3) The focus is incredibly narrow, the book mainly talks about Tories and the Leave campaign, Labour is an afterthought and no one else is mentioned. The author seemed to view Brexit mainly as an internal matter for the Conservative Party, rather than something that affected the whole country.
4) It suffers from hindsight bias. Every decision by the Leave campaign is treated as crucial to its success and every decision by the Remain side is treated as a mistake. Even things that were seen as successes are rewritten as mistakes. This gives an inaccurately one-sided view.