Stuart Laycock

Stuart Laycock is a British historian and author best known for the popular-history book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To. He has also written extensively on Roman and post-Roman Britain.

Life

He studied Classics at Cambridge.[1]

All the Countries We've Ever Invaded

All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To (2012) attempts to catalogue every country Britain has ever invaded or made an incursion into, whether they were part of the British Empire or suffered a briefer attack, were threatened, or forced to negotiate. Incursions by privateers, private explorers, etc, are also listed.[2] The earliest mentioned invasion was in 197 AD, when Clodius Albinus took many British soldiers across the English Channel to attack Gaul, being defeated at Lyon.

The book was attacked by Marxist writer Richard Seymour in the Guardian for allegedly trivialising the suffering caused by imperialism.[3] Although the book states it is not pro or anti-empire and is exploring historical facts rather than making moral judgements, Seymour accused it of "moral ambivalence" and "empire nostalgia".[3] Seymour also criticised it for elements such as including invasions long before the existence of Britain as a nation, but praised it for showing how British power went far beyond the overt machinery of empire to include economic and other forces.

Other books

Laycock has also written books on late-Roman Britain: Britannia - The Failed State[1][4] and Warlords: The Struggle for Power in Post-Roman Britain.[5][6] Warlords advances the theory that the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England was a takeover by a warrior elite.[7] With Miles Russell, he wrote UnRoman Britain, which claims that Britain was not significantly influenced by Roman occupation.[8] Laycock's first book of poetry, Zone:Poems from the Bosnian War,[9] drew on his experiences as an aid worker.

References
  1. "Britannia: a failed state?", Current Archaeology, May 13, 2008
  2. Copping, Jasper, "British have invaded nine out of ten countries - so look out Luxembourg", Daily Telegraph (London), 04 Nov 2012
  3. Seymour, Richard, "The British have invaded 90% of the world's countries. Ha ha?", The Guardian (London), 6 November 2012
  4. Evan-Hart, Julian (Sep 2007). "Roman Buckles & Military Fittings". Treasure Hunting: 83.
  5. "Warlords: The Struggle For Power In Post-Roman Britain", Current Archaeology, July 10, 2009
  6. Evan-Hart, Julian (June 2009). "Warlords - The Struggle for Power in Post-Roman Britain (review)". Treasure Hunting: 74.
  7. Rumble, Alexander. "Warlords (book review)". History Extra. BBC. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  8. Selkirk, Andrew, "Barbarism and Civilisation", Current Archaeology, January 20, 2011
  9. Mica Press 2015
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