‘Distinguished biographer Andrew Roberts is a man on a mission: to prove that King George III of England was neither a tyrant nor the “royal brute” denounced by pamphleteer Thomas Paine during the American Revolution.
Roberts’s narrative challenge is gigantic. … This fair-minded portrait’
David O. Stewart, Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/american-colonists-called-him-a-tyrant-but-was-king-george-iii-really-so-bad/2021/12/15/04593df2-4ba7-11ec-b73b-a00d6e559a6e_story.html
‘Roberts’s books are sweeping and brilliant. The reader gets an education, and the long-dead figures themselves get a fair hearing. … Get Roberts’s book. Listen to it if you are an audiophile because it is magnificently read. It will teach much about leadership in a time of constitutional crisis. … The Roberts book also brings great storytelling to the English domestic battles of their day.’
Hugh Hewitt, Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/23/history-hugh-hewitt-georgeiii-hamilton/
‘As Andrew Roberts shows in his magisterial new book, The Last King of America, George III was certainly no tyrant. … In this detailed but wonderfully readable biography, Andrew Roberts gives us the life of one of Britain’s most successful kings.’
John Steele Gordon, Commentary
George the Great – John Steele Gordon, Commentary Magazine
‘Andrew Roberts admires George III (1738–1820), and he is right to do so. The historical image of the king as a tyrant and a lunatic is not remotely true in the first case (a contention Roberts provides much evidence to substantiate) and true only for part of his reign in the second. … A handsome and thorough biography … but above all, Roberts has written a superlative political history of the period between 1760 and 1809.’
Simon Heffer, New Criterion
Mad about George by Simon Heffer | The New Criterion
‘Andrew Roberts, the great British historian’s new biography, “The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III,” radically and persuasively revises our understanding of both the monarch and the revolution that gave rise to the United States of America.’
Clifford D. May, Washington Times
American Revolution was not about tyranny (or slavery) – Washington Times
This magnificent biography … 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.
Daniel Johnson, American Spectator
https://spectator.org/andrew-roberts-the-last-king-of-america-lauds-the-nobility-of-george-iii/
‘Aided by the opening of the Georgian Papers in Britain’s Royal Archives, Roberts states a primary aim of his massive and meticulous The Last King of America is to dispel this image for American readers. He depicts instead a thoughtful, serious ruler who, as the subtitle suggests, was misunderstood not only by his former subjects in the colonies, but also by just about everyone else around him.’
Paula Tarnapol Witacre, Washington Independent Review of Books
https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/the-last-king-of-america-the-misunderstood-reign-of-george-iii
‘For all his flaws, George III was a good man struggling to be a great man. He has finally found an able, articulate apologist in Roberts, whose earlier biographies of Napoleon and Winston Churchill received much well-deserved acclaim.’
Aram Bakshian, Washington Examiner
The goodness of King George | Washington Examiner
‘Roberts has been justly acclaimed as one of his generation’s leading historians. His new biography seeks to challenge popular myths about the monarch. … Roberts, employing the same flair for original research and ability to convey historical context and vivid prose that he used in previous books … thoroughly debunks all the assumptions most people have about the king.’
Jonathan Tobin, Washington Examiner
The high stakes of historical revisionism | Washington Examiner
‘Roberts paints a deft and nuanced portrait of the much-maligned monarch and outlines his accomplishments, which have been almost universally forgotten.’
Charles Coutinho, New Books Network
New Books Network | Andrew Roberts, “The Last King of America: The…
‘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 …
A capacious, prodigiously researched biography from a top-shelf historian.’
Kirkus
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/andrew-roberts/the-last-king-of-america/
‘Meticulously researched…. an eye-opening portrait of the man and his times’
Publishers Weekly
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781984879264
“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 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, Library Journal
‘Andrew Roberts draws on a newly released cache of documents to provide a detailed biography of King George III that presents him in a whole new light. … Claiming that George III has been “the most unfairly traduced sovereign” in the history of England, Roberts portrays the king as cultured, intelligent, moral and relatively enlightened.’
Glenn C. Altschuler, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review: ‘The Last King of America,’ by Andrew Roberts – StarTribune.com