History
The Future History of the Arctic: How climate, resources and geopolitics are reshaping the north, and why it matters to the world by Charles Emmerson
Charles Emmerson examines the past history of Arctic exploration, economic exploitation and development and the policies of governments of countries which include Arctic territory (and others), with the aim of understanding the present and predicting the future better. He explains the apparently contradictory title in some detail in the Introduction. While history is about the past, 'ideas about the future have changed over time'. Also, the future of the Arctic will be shaped by its history. Full review...
The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents by Alex Butterworth
In deciding to write about political upheaval across Europe, including Russia, Alex Butterworth has chosen a massive topic for this entertaining book. So massive, in fact, that when I tried reading it without first looking through the pen pictures at the start of the main players I was quickly completely lost. My mistake – the short, sharp, pen pictures, which cover sixteen pages and detail all the major anarchists and secret agents are completely invaluable and helped my reading of the book enormously. Full review...
Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To War by Giles Milton
Giles Milton's daughter was set the task of designing an heraldic shield which represented the most important elements of her family's history. Aware that one of her grandparents is German she included the only German symbol which she knew: a Swastika. It was this incident, which was an awkward mixture of funny and disquieting which brought about 'Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To War'. It's the story of Giles' father-in-law, Wolfram Aïchele, who was nine years old when Hitler came to power and who found himself caught up in a situation which was none of his making and didn't accord with his own beliefs. He was a man who wanted to be a sculptor or to paint, but he was forced to become a soldier. Full review...
Patrick Bronte: Father of Genius by Dudley Green
There have been many biographies about Charlotte Brontë and her siblings, but very little about their father. It is tempting to speculate whether he would be quite so deserving of one if he had not been the father of such a famous family. Yet Dudley Green, a retired Classics teacher, has demonstrated here that he did lead an interesting life himself. Born in rural Ireland in 1777, he spent his early years there before arriving in England in 1802 and settled in Yorkshire seven years later, where he remained the rest of his days. Full review...
Scarcity and Frontiers: How Economies Have Developed Through Natural Resource Exploitation by Edward B Barbier
Scarcity and Frontiers is an ambitious, fascinating book that examines how the world's economies have developed by exploiting natural resources. Throughout history, states have responded to natural resource scarcity by developing new frontiers, hence the title. The book begins with the development of agriculture along the banks of the Nile and runs right through to the present day, finally questioning whether we are entering a new era of natural resource scarcity. Full review...
The Last Days of Richard III by John Ashdown-Hill
The controversy surrounding King Richard III has meant that there have been far more biographies about him than on any other pre-Tudor monarch, some extremely partisan in exonerating him of the crimes laid at his door, some (a minority, it seems) more than keen to endorse the Shakespearean portrait of a fiend in human shape, and others steering a middle course. Full review...
Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
The city of Ekaterinburg was once regarded as imperial Russia's gateway to the east. In 1918 it became symbolic with one of the most savage executions, or might one say liquidations, ever recorded in history – the cold-blooded annihilation of the former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their children, the last remaining servants who had stayed with them in captivity, and their pet dogs. Full review...
Edgelands by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
Around the middle of the last century and earlier, books about the English countryside seemed very much in vogue. H.V. Morton's 'In Search of England' and associated titles spring readily to mind, but there were a wealth of others, by authors who seemed intent on discovering the land for themselves, sometimes anxious to document it before it was gone. Full review...
A World By Itself: A History of the British Isles by Jonathan Clark
As one who has always felt most at ease with the standard chronological approach to history, driven by events and major personalities, I found the close-on 700 pages of this volume fairly demanding reading in places. It is divided into six parts, each by a different contributor with the editor himself writing the fourth. Each part is divided into Material Cultures, followed by essays on topics (not for all sections) on Religious Cultures; Religion, Nationalism and Identity; and Political and National Cultures. What we have, therefore, is an overview of events from each period, more thorough in some instances than others, and a certain amount of theorizing on the general social, political and even artistic background. A straightforward history through the ages – it is not. Full review...
Gallipoli by Peter Hart
Early in 1915 the Allied Powers attempted to seize the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople and eliminate Turkey, who had joined the Central Powers, from the First World War. The campaign ended in failure and retreat, yet for many years it was portrayed as a brilliant strategy undermined by bad luck and incompetent commanders. This painstakingly-researched account shows that this was not the case. It was more a matter of a wild scheme which was poorly planned and doomed from the start, compounding the Allies' problems by diverting large numbers of troops from attacking Germans on the Western Front, where they would arguably have been better employed. In his introduction he calls the eight-month exercise 'an epic tragedy with an incredible heroic resilience displayed by the soldiers', yet ultimately 'a futile and costly sideshow for all the combatants.' It was a huge drain on Allied military resources, involving nearly half a million troops, with the British Empire losing about 205,000 – 115,000 killed, wounded or missing and 90,000 evacuated sick – while the French lost 47,000, and the Turkish over 251,000. Full review...
The Story of Britain by Patrick Dillon and P J Lynch
Author Patrick Dillon has put together a clear, well-written and beautifully concise story of Britain, summing up the history of Britain and Ireland in a little over 320 pages. Significant events, ranging from the Norman Conquest to the South Sea Bubble, and groups of people ranging from highwaymen to the Romantic poets, are each dealt with in between 1 and 3 pages written in Dillon's chatty, easy to read style. There are also maps, including those of the D-Day landings and the Civil War battles, a timeline for each major period (Middle Ages, Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians, Victorians and Twentieth Century) and some gorgeous illustrations by former Kate Greenaway winner PJ Lynch. Full review...
Pitt the Elder: Man of War by Edward Pearce
William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, and Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768, has come down to us through the ages as the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchill, one of the great men of the British Empire in its earlier days, and the man who led England triumphantly through the Seven Years War of 1756-63. During the 'year of victories' in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English and Prussian forces defeated the French at Minden, and the army won a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or was accorded by generations of historians – much of the credit. Full review...
The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
In 2008 the historian Tony Judt was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disorder that eventually results in complete paralysis for the sufferer. Unable to jot down ideas as they came to him, Judt had to rely on his memory to hold them until he had the chance to dictate his words to somebody else. His memory, which was already good, became exceptional. The progress of the disorder left Judt unable to move, but no mental deterioration or lack of sensation occurred, which he describes as a mixed blessing. He had to endure whole nights lying in the same position, unable to roll over or even to scratch an itch, a prisoner in his own body. To preserve his sanity during these tortuous nights he focussed on events from his own past, linking then with other events and ideas it had never occurred to him were connected. It was during these reveries that the essays in The Memory Chalet were not only conceived, but also developed in their entirety. Full review...
Death of a Pirate: British Radio and the Making of the Information Age by Adrian Johns
If you are inclined to take your cues from the weekly reviews, as the witty poet Gavin Ewart once expressed the matter, you will doubtless find currently articles as varied as; Russell Brand predicting the imminent decline of the BBC, various interpretations of liberalism and how these struggle for expression in Coalition Government policy. There are concerns too about the legislation governing the internet and references back to the Sixties battles between, on the one hand, the unbridled self-expression of the free market and, on the other, the virtues of self-restraint in such matters as the re-examination of the Lady Chatterley trial, now fifty years ago. An unusual and quite intriguing book, Death of a Pirate, about the development of intellectual property and piracy in radio touches on all these contemporary concerns in a dramatic way. It combines the history of modern broadcasting with a crime story and consequent trial. Full review...
Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town by Mary Beard
The introduction does not spare the reader of the horror of a volcanic (Vesuvius) eruption in the year 79 CE. As the local residents literally ran for their lives clutching what they could easily carry ' ... a deadly, burning combination of gases, volcanic debris and molten rock travelling at huge speed ...' leaves the reader with an horrific mental image. All that last minute panicking was in vain. No one could survive such an onslaught. Nature at her very worst indeed. Full review...
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield
A quality typeface is a bit like a good referee at a football match in that you only really notice them if something has gone wrong. A referee is there to facilitate the players on the pitch, not to be the star of the show (though watching Match of the Day these past few weeks you'd often beg to differ). So it is with typefaces. A good type helps the reader, enhances the flow and makes the viewing experience easy and simple. Well sort of. Full review...
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
This book was first published in France in the late 1940s and was an instant success. Much praise is heaped upon it as we see from the back cover; but the line which resonates with me, is simply 'The Second Sex is required reading for anyone who believes in equality.' I happily put my hand up for that one, speaking, as it happens - as a 'second sex' individual. It struck me that wouldn't it be interesting to also have a male reviewer give this book his thorough and undivided attention? Full review...
The Ancient Guide to Modern Life by Natalie Haynes
Haynes starts with the positive statement that we shouldn't throw the subject of ancient history straight in the bin, so to speak. We should instead embrace it. It has lots to tell us if only we would listen. Chapter 1 entitled Old World Order certainly grabbed my attention with the line ... 'Can politicians really make a positive difference to our lives ...' In 2010 when the role of politicians is at an all-time low in the eyes of the voters, this is an excellent question to kick off with. We zoom right back in time and explore how the Athenians lived. Apparently they were rather forward-thinking and progressive people with ideas which could easily be put into use today. They also enjoyed true democracy. When Haynes was talking about politics generally I liked another sweeping statement of hers where she says ' ... that history teaches us we could offer our politicians a hefty pay cut and still get plenty of perfectly competent candidates.' My inner voice was shouting out - make an immediate start on that one please. I won't spoil all the delicious details which led up to this attention-grabbing statement but it really is food for thought. Full review...
Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49 by Patricia Malcolmson and Robert Malcolmson (Editors)
Nella Last wrote a regular diary for twenty-seven years. Two previous volumes, also edited by Patricia and Robert Malcolmson, deal with the Second World War and immediate post-War years. Now this third book starts with selections from 1950 and covers four years of social change as Britain moves into the reign of Elizabeth II. Full review...
The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah
In the Preface, Appiah believes that morality is an extremely important area of our lives as we live them today. He goes on by saying that it's all very well thinking about morality - our morals - our own code of living - but it's the ultimate action which truly matters. Well, I would certainly agree with that. And as Appiah digs deeper into his subject, he tells his readers that he was struck by similarities between, for example, the collapse of the duel, the abandonment of footbinding, the end of Atlantic slavery. In the following chapters he debates the issues of those three major areas of morality. They were, in short, moral issues on a very large scale. Full review...
Egyptian Dawn: Exposing the Real Truth Behind Ancient Egypt by Robert Temple
This is latest book from Robert Temple in which he documents new theories on the Ancient Egyptians. There are some startling claims in the book, not least regarding the Pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid and the proposal that there were in fact two Egyptian civilisations that existed alongside each other in different parts of Egypt. If the author is correct in all of his assertions then it would certainly point to the location of amazing new archaeological discoveries and shine a new perspective on how we view the Ancient Egyptians and the Pyramids. Full review...
Garlands, Conkers and Mother-Die: British and Irish Plant-Lore by Roy Vickery
For many centuries, plants have not only had practical uses as food, remedies, textiles and dyes, but have also symbolic and folkloric meaning in many different cultures. The term plant-lore has been coined to describe the profusion of the customs and beliefs associated with plants, and this book gathers together many of the plant-lore traditions of Britain and Ireland. Full review...
The Masters of Manton: From Alec Taylor to George Todd by Paul Mathieu
'Manton' is one of those iconic names in horse racing: the yard on the edge of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire and currently the home of trainer Brian Meehan. But Paul Mathieu isn't looking at what's happening today, or even in the recent past; he's looking back at the men who made Manton a household name from when the yard was built in 1870 through to George Todd's death in 1974. The first master was Alec Taylor – generally known as 'Old Alec Taylor', who came to Manton from Fyfield with a string of classic winners to his name. He, his son, 'Young Alec', Joe Lawson and George Todd were the great names in just over a century at the yard. Full review...
An Island in Time: The Biography of a Village by Geert Mak
In the mid 1990s journalist and author Geert Mak returned to his native Friesland and took up residence in the village of Jorwert. His aim was to investigate the quiet revolution going on in the agrarian communities not just of Holland but of the whole of Europe.
This wasn't going to be an outsider's view. Mak grew up in the northern Dutch province; he spoke the language; he knew the games and understood the people. In a very real sense Mak was going home… and finding that it scarcely existed any more. Full review...
Medieval Intrigue: Decoding Royal Conspiracies by Ian Mortimer
Over the last few years Dr Mortimer has established himself as one of the foremost writers of British historical biography covering the 14th and early 15th centuries. However his previous books have been quite accessible to the general as well as the scholarly reader. This present volume is aimed more at the latter audience, assuming as it does a detailed knowledge of King Edward II and his successors. This is hinted at in his introduction, in which he points out that 'history is the most conservative of all professions, and a radical historian is generally branded a maverick by the mainstream.' Full review...
Bomber County by Daniel Swift
Bomber County is, of course, Lincolnshire where squadrons of Beaufighters, Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Lancasters were huddled in hangars for combined raids against enemy targets in German occupied Europe. As the war progressed the targets escalated, from attacks against the German Fleet, the industrial complex of the Ruhr and later, with the aim of breaking enemy morale, the targets included the cities - including Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden and Cologne. Night after night, crews already warmly dressed in jerseys and thick woollen socks zipped themselves into flying suits and made their way towards the enemy coast. Conditions were cramped and the temperatures plummeted as they gained altitude flying by the light of the moon to their appointed destinations. Full review...
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View by Richard Tarnas
With plaudits such as 'Ten years in the making' and a 'US Bestseller', this book has serious pedigree. It is a serious book in content also. At its very heart is the link between the disciplines of philosophy, religion and science. Small sentence, huge implications, I'm thinking right at the outset. Where to begin? Well, all the chapters are usefully sub-divided into bite-sized pieces. So, although this book may look daunting to some at first glance, the subject matter can be broken down very easily. Therefore, it starts with a section headed 'The Greek World View' and as many might expect, covers Socrates, Plato and Homer. Full review...
Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades by Jonathan Phillips
In this book, drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources including chronicles, songs, sermons, travel diaries and peace treaties, as well as the existing literature from earlier generations, Phillips explores in depth the contradictions and the diversity of holy war, of friendships and alliances between Christians and Muslims, the launches of crusades against Christians, and calls for jihads against Muslims. In doing so he has written what is not so much a general history, but had vividly brought to life a rich tapestry of figures and events, while devoting equal attention in his narrative to the Christian and Islamic point of view. This traces the crusading impulse from the conquest of Jerusalem in the First Crusade, launched by Pope Urban II in France in 1095, to today, and in the process helps us to understand the origins of some of the sensitivities which have led to many of the conflicts still raging in the world today. Full review...
The Perfect Nazi: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past and How Hitler Seduced a Generation by Martin Davidson
Meet Martin Davidson. Now, when I start my reviews like that, normally it means he's the main character, but he's not here. He's big in the world of BBC History documentaries, and grew up in the UK, half Scottish and half German, knowing that many of his older relatives lived through the Second World War. Foremost among them was his German grandfather, Bruno Langbehn, who would have been of fighting age - in his 30s - during the Third Reich. Nothing much was ever said about Bruno's own history during the war, except for many inflammatory, rising comments by Bruno himself. It took the old man to die for the truth to be admitted by Martin's mother - their forefather was in the SS. Full review...
The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton
Reading a book, whether for study or relaxation, in the sitting room, in bed, on public transport, or almost anywhere else, has been one of everybody's favourite activities for many a long year, and not just by visitors and contributors to this site. (Therein lies a paradox, I hear you say). As Darnton points out in his introduction, the good old-fashioned book was not destroyed by newspapers (or magazines, for that matter), any more than television destroyed radio, or the internet made people abandon TV. Full review...
The American Civil War by John Keegan
While before reading this book I considered myself to be vaguely familiar with the major facts about the American Civil War – the fight to liberate the slaves, the well-known battles, and the towering figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S Grant, and Robert E Lee – I was keen to learn more about the war and get an in-depth view of it from a renowned historian. After finishing the book, I certainly consider myself to be far better informed on the military, and tactical, side of things, but found it a little lacking in certain other areas such as the causes and effects. Full review...
We Die Alone by David Howarth
Consider taking a five day sail in a small fishing boat the height of the North Sea from Shetland, to try and establish, train and supply some potentially vital anti-German resistance in the far, far north of occupied Norway, your homeland. Imagine the sight of heavy naval parades where you intended to land, as galling proof that your intel is ages out of date. Ponder too the fact that you get reported to the Nazis due to the most ridiculous slight of fortune. All your colleagues are dead or captured, your equipment blown up with your trawler to keep it safe from Jerry hands, half your big toe has been shot off, and you're forced to go on the run in one of Europe's last, and coldest, wildernesses. And you have no idea whatsoever quite how bad this scenario is going to get. Full review...