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A Very Polite Inquiry Into Some Strangely Related Families
PublicAffairs
May 2007
On Sale: May 7, 2007
370 pages
ISBN: 1586484915
EAN: 9781586484910
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A hugely entertaining look at the institution of monarchy by
Britain's most combative and best-loved broadcaster. The notable characteristic of the royal families of Europe
is that they have so very little of anything remotely
resembling true power. Increasingly, they tend towards the
condition of pipsqueak principalities like Liechtenstein and
Monaco--fancy-dress fodder for magazines that survive by
telling us things we did not need to know about people we
have hardly heard of. How then have kings and queens come to exercise the mesmeric
hold they have upon our imaginations? In On Royalty renowned
BBC journalist Jeremy Paxman examines the role of the
British monarchy in an age when divine right no longer
prevails and governing powers fall to the country's elected
leaders. With intelligence and humor, he scrutinizes every
aspect of the monarchy and how it has related to politics,
religion, the military and the law. He takes us inside
Buckingham Palace and illuminates the lives of the monarchs,
at once mundane, absurd and magical. What Desmond Morris did
for apes, Paxman has done for these primus inter primates:
the royal families. Gilded history, weird anthropology and
surreal reportage of the royals up close combine in On
Royalty, a brilliant investigation into how an ancient
institution struggles for meaning in a modern country.
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