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[[Category:New Reviews|History]]==History==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Timothy W Ryback1785633457|title=Hitler's Private LibraryCharging Around: The Books That Shaped His Life|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=As the fictional schoolboy hero Nigel Molesworth might have said, 'any fule kno' that Adolf Hitler was notorious for burning books. Nevertheless he was also an avid collector and passionate reader, as around 1200 surviving volumes once in his possession now in the Rare Book Division of the Library of Congress, and a smaller quantity in Brown University, Rhode Island, demonstrate. Among them were world literature classics, such as 'Robinson Crusoe', 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', and 'Gulliver's Travels'. He also owned an edition of Exploring the collected works Edges of Shakespeare, in hand-tooled Moroccan leather with a gold-embossed eagle flanked England by his initials on the spine. The Bard, he once said, was greatly superior to Goethe and Schiller.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532174</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewElectric Car|author=Druin Burch|title=Taking the MedicineClive Wilkinson

|genre=Popular ScienceTravel|summary=In 1898, Burch points out that Clive Wilkinson has a new drug was developed and marketed for the treatment history of tuberculosis travelling by Bayer & Counconventional means with a preference for slow travel. TB is such an ancient enemy As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of man that there is apparently evidence exploring the edges of England in an earlier strain to electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be found in Egyptian mummies. The German firm had discovered a chemical that seemed to work wellpleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, and patients and indeed their own staffJoan, who were tested seemed to respond well - shouldn't it was named Heroin - and its addictive effects were at first missed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951506</amazonuk>?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sian ReesB09BLBP3P8|title=Sweet Water and BitterNeville Chamberlain's War: The Ships That Stopped the Slave TradeHow Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager

|summary=The Act for Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the Abolition popular imagination of the Slave Trade was passed in Britain in March 1807early days of World War II from 1939-40, and known as the last legal British slave ship left Africa seven months later''Phoney War''. Other countries were slow We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in to follow suitsave the day. Everyone Very little time is spent on this period in Britain knew there would be resistance, cultural reflections and when the abolitionist Granville Sharpe purchased land in Sierra Leone to 'repatriate' freed slavesyet, Ottobah Cugoana, a former slave living as Frederic Seager argues in Londonthis book, asked if it was possible for 'a fountain to send forth both sweet water and bitterof vital significance in how the war played out.' Could the slave trade, he wondered, be abolished from West Africa - when West Africa was its source?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951174</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Grimson3756228711|title=CDC: The Isle of Man: Portrait of a Nation|rating=5|genre=History|summary=To many of us, the Isle of Man is probably best known for the Tynwald, the annual TT motorcycle races, and as a holiday resort. I must admit that my knowledge of it extended little further than that, and therefore found this book invaluable. In these 550 pages, profusely illustrated with photographs and maps, I imagine that few if any questions on the subject are left unanswered. John Grimson has lived there for nearly forty happy years, and as well as working with several of the island's local authorities, was active as a long-distance runner and cyclist until his early seventies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709081030</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Thomas Asbridge|title=The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The word 'Crusades' has been misappropriated and often used in various other contexts over the passing years. In their original meaning they were a series of holy wars during the medieval era between the Christian and Muslim world, fighting for dominion over the Holy Land between 1095 and 1291 as the defenders of western civilization formed expeditions travelling across the face of the known world from Europe, their sole aim being to conquer and defend an isolated swathe of territory centred on Jerusalem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743268601</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Van der Kiste|title=Sons, Servants and Statesmen: The Men in Queen Victoria's Life|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Like the first Elizabeth more books than are strictly necessary have been written about Queen Victoria, but John Van der Kiste has taken the unusual step of using the men in her life to illuminate some dark corners which might other wise have remained unexplored. Of course the most famous man in her life, husband and Prince Consort Albert isnspectacular IT 't 'son, servant or statesman' as promised by the title of the book, but he established a trend. Victoria, often regarded as a difficult woman to please, would always have a man in her life who would, to a greater or lesser extent, dominate her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750937882</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andrew Marr|title=The Making of Modern Britain: From Queen Victoria to V.E. Day|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=This book, and the BBC TV series which complements it, must confirm Andrew MarrPhenomena's status as one of the most entertaining and compulsive historian-cum-presenters working today. His previous project, on postwar Britain, was hard to fault, and anyone who enjoyed that will certainly relish this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230709427</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patrick Casey and Richard I Hale|title=For College, Club & Country - A History of Clifton Rugby Football ClubHans Bodmer

|summary=Clifton Rugby Football Club can proudly trace its ''The history back to the very emergence of the sport development of rugby union. Founded in September 1872, the same year that William Webb Ellis, who is reputed to have been the rebellious Rugby schoolboy who first ran with the ball, died. In reality, it is highly likely that the Webb Ellis story is something IT could fill books of a spin job on behalf of Rugby School, although it did mean that Rugby School was able to impose its rules on the game at a time when most public schools had their own rules for playing versions of the gameseveral hundred pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312756</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Peter Gay|title=Modernism: The Lure of Heresy - From Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond|rating=4|genre=History|summary=It Author Hans Bodmer is impossible not quite right about that. He has chosen to be impressed by tell us about the sheer scope short, but explosive, history of cultural historian Peter Gaythe Control Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. It's 2007 study of Modernisma fascinating tale, newly released in this paperback edition. He notes told in the introduction that it is not a 'comprehensive history' but rather 'a study mixture of its rise, triumphs, technological summary and decline'. What is remarkable though, is the attempt to include the whole gamut of artistic fields in this coherent studywry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099441969</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=Jonathan Wild: Conman Fritz and CutpurseKurt

|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=Born towards We start with the end pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the seventeenth century Jonathan Wild was neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to become the eighteenth century's most famous criminal, plying his trade in synagogue choir and at a rather curious fashion. He was born in Wolverhampton of parents described as ''mean but honest''vocational school. It seems likely that he first travelled Kurt has to London make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as the servant of a lawyer where he was eventually to settle, leaving his wife and child to fend for themselveslight switch. It was whilst serving a term of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter that he mixed with But this is the cream of London's criminal underclass and learned time just before the rudiments of his trade.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848682190</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This Austrian leader is an interesting read, but unless Igoing to cave to Hitler'm missing somethings will, the focus and instead of the book seems having a little difficult national vote to graspkeep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. It's best if I start with the author's intentions Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as set out in her PrologueGermany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on These in their turn leave the South Side, she writes, interspersed younger Kurt at home with stories his mother and observations about Obama, linking it with sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the musicUS, musicians while Fritz and music scenehis father are, past and present, including hip hop, country, classicalunknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and rock'n'rollthe stone quarry there. All of these, she notes, were heard on And us wondering how the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds titular event for the blues, gospel, soul and jazz adult variant of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>024156574X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerJohn Henry Phillips|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryThe Search

|summary=The medievalArchaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in fact time-honouredthe dirt looking to find what you can find, view of King Henry V as one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though often knowing there should be something there but not originated by Shakespeare, and again more recently always confident what. Archaeology must be a fair bit harder when you set out to find some extent by Olivier's portrayal in filmspecific thing. At least one historian has called him ''This book is a case of the greatest man that ever ruled England''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|latter, as our author=Toby Lester|title=The Fourth Part promises to locate the topic of the World: The Epic Story of Historytitular search. And he really hasn's Greatest Map|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=In 2003 a map was bought t made it easy for $10 million, himself – the highest price ever paid publicly for search area is a historical documentwide one, by the Library of Congresstarget might not exist any more – oh, where and it is now on permanent public display. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificateunderwater, when he cannot dive. It is Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in heroic old man's visit back to France, our author has promised to find the 16th centurylanding craft that delivered him to Normandy, and that he was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired secondary aim is to erect a memorial to discover moreeveryone else aboard, and this book is the resultvast majority of whom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>1472146182

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer RobertsB09F4CTKJR|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|genre=BiographyHistorical Fiction|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the richest conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and most opulent city in Europe, Maria joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married US Aero Squadron to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen be trained in 1777. A conscientious womanCanada, she had the misfortune first to be born in during attached to the 'age of reason', when church RAF and state were vying for supremacythe first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. Instinctively a supporter of the old religionBut before that can happen, with a humanitarian approach Petrol has to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine master flying the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantlynotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven M Gillon0578761718|title=The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours AfterInspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver

|summary=The assassination church of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in my life and for more than forty years I've read most of what has been written about the event. It's been City of variable qualityLondon from at least 1181, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publiclywhen it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, I'd come to the point of wondering if there original church was anything new to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – destroyed in the first twenty four hours Great Fire of Lyndon Johnson's PresidencyLondon in 1666.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stella Tillyard |title=A Royal Affair: George III and His Troublesome Siblings|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=King George III It was not rebuilt in Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the luckiest of English sovereigns. America, fire and then his sonssurvived for centuries until World War II, in when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that order, gave him no wasn't the end of griefits story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, and the last few years of his life stones from the church's walls were clouded by madnesstransported to Fulton, Missouri. It is thus often overlooked thatThere, before these troubles arose to haunt this most conscientious monarchin the grounds of Westminster College, he also had the church was rebuilt and today serves as a thankless task in trying memorial to control his siblingsWinston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099428563</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andy Beckett 1784385166|title=When the Lights Went OutThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: Britain in the SeventiesA Material History of Nazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse

|summary=Having grown up during What is the era and followed the major news stories in first image that comes to mind when you think of the papers as they happened, I was fascinated Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to find everything (well, nearly everything) in the 500-page narrative that comprises this book. It was quite a rocky ride from the election concentration camp? None of Edward Heath in June 1970 through the three-day week, record British inflation and the IMF rescue, industrial disputes and picket battles at Saltley and Grunwick, the Gay Liberation Front and the stirrings these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the green movement, the rise of Arthur Scargill, Third Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and the discovery of North Sea oilimages from that time may be less familiar to you. Then there was the survival of James Callaghan's minority administration despite the oddsIn this short volume, and thanks largely Roger Moorhouse has attempted to his adroit handling illustrate the period of the situation in keeping both Tony Benn and the Lib-Lab pact on board, followed by the winter Third Reich through one hundred of discontent, culminating in Thatcher at No 10its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057122136X</amazonuk> 

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian Mortimer Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval EnglandTiananmen 1989: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth CenturyOur Shattered Hopes|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=What would happen if we twenty-first century people took a trip back I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in time to the fourteenth century? It would be very like visiting another countrysecond half of their teens has other priorities, you know. Even our landscape would be greatly changed. Ian Mortimer takes this approach I certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and, applying his theory of living history, treats his readers to an objective hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and entertaining view of one the birth of the most stereotypical centuries in medieval history. The fourteenth century has not only castlesTank Man image, knights, tournamentsI didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and wars, but also gave birth to many of I didn't know more than a spit about the creative minds associated with medieval England like Chaucer and people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the Gawain-poetwhole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845950992</amazonuk>1684056993

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Weir0648684806|title=The Lady in the TowerClara Colby: The Fall of Anne Boleyn|rating=5|genre=History|summary=Wot? More Tudors? Sorry, yes. Come on, be honest: you love 'em, I love 'em, we all love 'em. My favourite writer of popular history is adding to the market writing for a third time about possibly history's most dramatic rise and fall - that of Anne Boleyn, second of Henry VIII's six wives. The book covers only a very short period, covering her arrest, trial and execution. She had been the scandal of Europe, this woman; had captured a king, unseated a queen, and promoted a new religion. Her fall couldn't have been swifter, harder or more ruthless and her little neck was severed on a scaffold at the Tower of London. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224063197</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInternational Suffragist|author=Tracy Borman |title=Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin QueenJohn Holliday|rating=4.5

|summary=So many biographies have been written about the life and times The path of EnglandClara Dorothy Bewick's longestlife was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-lived years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and longest reigning sovereign three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that one might wonder whether there is anything new left to say about she received a good education, both in and out of school. She was the only child in the household and herchildhood was glorious. However Tracy Borman has found an interesting new angle – by telling By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the story mid-west of the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her life through grandparents eventually went to join the women closest to family. Clara would only know hermother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082264</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tamim Ansary 1783784350|title=Destiny DisruptedThis Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History of the World Through Islamic Eyes|author=Esther Rutter

|summary=I enjoyed history at school It was December and whilst we didn't always work our way through it chronologically I came, over timeEsther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to have a working knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and Romanseven her knitting did not soothe her mind. I knew about January was going to be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the rise length and breadth of Christianity and spoke knowledgeably about medieval Englandthe British Isles with occasional forays abroad, the Renaissance discovering and telling the Reformation but was perhaps less taken by the Industrial Revolution story of wool's history and all that followed. I was au fait with the east but how it was mainly from had made and changed the perspective of exploration – or even exploitationlandscape. It was an education based She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a free-range child on the virtues of the solid, whitefarm'' - and learned to spin, English, Christian middle classes knit and it completely ignored histories weave from the perspective of other religionsher mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586486063</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elliott J Gorn 1789017977|title=DillingerRonnie and Hilda's Wild RideRomance: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number OneTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|summary=John Dillinger Ronnie Williams was born the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and brought up in IndianaEthel Wall. His childhood There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was no better already many years older than Ethel and no worse than most but he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while the early part of his adult life family was quite well-to be blighted by a spell -do but disaster struck in prison when he was convicted of an attack on the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a man in a botched hold-upvery different lifestyle. Hoping for leniency One thing he pleaded guilty but did inherit from his father was sentenced his need to a lengthy term of imprisonment, whilst the man be well-turned-out and this would stay with him pleaded not guilty and when convicted received a shorter sentencethroughout his life. It's easy to see where Dillinger's contempt for He joined the law was spawnedarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0195304837</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Read 1980891117|title=The World on FireG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: 1919 and A year in the Battle with Bolshevism life of George Engleheart|author=John Webley

|genre=HistoryArt|summary=In 1919 the world George Engleheart was an extremely unstable place. They say history often repeats itself, and there were parallels with 1789 - but on a far greater scale. During the First World War, with the Russian revolution and the overthrow one of the Tsarist regime, one tyranny was supplanted by another which was even worse. Lenin took the new upstart socialist republic out leading portrait miniaturists of the conflictGeorgian London, accepting unbelievably harsh peace terms with a career lasting from Germany in order the 1770s to save and nurture the still fragile Bolshevik revolutionRegency era. Consolidating his power He was no easy task. Much as the people might have been glad to see the end of imperial Russia (if not the cold-blooded butchery also one of the former sovereignmost prolific, his consort and their children)painting nearly 5, they were less than enthusiastic about Bolshevism, which secured only 24% 000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of the votes in the new assemblyKing George III). Lenin dealt promptly with Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the problem by shutting the assembly downnames of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844138321</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Conn Iggulden and David Iggulden1789016304|title=The Dangerous Book War and Love: A family's testament of Heroesanguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=35

|summary=For most of us (wellMelanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, for me certainly) the word particularly in 'hero' summons an image The Diary of capes, spandex and garish primary coloursAnn Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. Conn A hundred and David Iggulden have written a book about seven thousand Jews were deported from the other kind – city during the every day heroes from historywar years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who achieve incredible things without were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the aid of superpowers.  From household names like Horatio Nelson and Winston Churchilloccupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to lesser known peopleescalate in the way that it did, like Aphra Behn and Hereward but initial protests melted away as the Wake, organisers became more circumspect. It''The Dangerous Book of Heroes'' covers s an atrocity on a comprehensive range vast scale but made up of characters from the history tens of the British Empire. From campaigners for political change, brilliant battle strategists to daring explorers, each and every one thousands of the people in this book lived brilliant lives and changed the world foreverindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000726092X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Timothy Brook 1908745819|title=Vermeer's Hat: The seventeenth century and the dawn of the global worldSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=45

|summary=If Sometimes when people suggest that you read a picture paints a thousand wordscertain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, then Timothy Brook provides the dictionary but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we can use to make sense of didn't like the vocabularybook. That's a rare experience. Using five paintings by the seventeenth century Delft artist Johannes Vermeer along with People who are sensitive to hearing a blue and white porcelain plate and book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the works author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of two of Vermeerherself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's contemporaries, Brook demonstrates how the far flung corners not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the seventeenth century natural world were drawn together by , of those aspects of the ambitions of European merchants poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and the ability substance most of Asiaall, about connection. Of course, Africa and the Americas this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to provided the materials me eventually. I am pleased to fulfil themhave it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681200</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pete Brown 0857058320|title=Hops Lord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British EmpireAnne McLean (translator)

|summary=Despite being very descriptive, ''Lord Of All the title of Dead'The Templars: History and Myth: From Solomon's Temple is a journey to uncover the Freemasonsauthor' still doesns lost ancestor't cover s life and death. Cercas is searching for the full scope of Michael Haagmeaning behind his great uncle's bookdeath in the Spanish Civil War. Notwithstanding its relatively modest page countManuel Mena, Cercas''Templars'' not only manages to place great uncle, is the fascinating tale of figure who looms large over the Knightsbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco' astonishing rise and spectacular fall in a rich historical context, but also provides an entertaining account of s forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the Templars' 'afterlife': from the Masonic lore centre of the title to novels, films and games this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to conspiracy theories. There is also be a travel guide and good list of source materials hero whilst having fought for further readingthe wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681537</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Wheatcroft 0008294011|title=How to Lose a Country: The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran

|summary=The battle for Europe which Andrew Wheatcroft describes in such vivid detail is the culmination of A little while ago a power struggle between the Ottoman empire, based friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what in Constantinople, and the Habsburg domain in Vienna, which had lasted for around 250 years prior to the final solution. These two centuries and more of struggle between them led to the decision come would be discussed by the sultan of Turkey, hungry for more territory, and his ministers in 1682 to lead their army against the Habsburgs at Vienna A level history students when faced with the ultimate objective of capturing question ''Discuss the city, factors which led to...'' I agreed that she was right and the ensuing siege wasn't certain whether it was a year latergood or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. Some historians have seen this as a crucial moment I think now that I do know. We are in the history danger of conflicts between the east losing democracy and the westwhilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, although others consider its status particularly as one of the defining events somewhat over-estimated. Whatever the truth of the matter, the book that tells the story 'benevolent dictator' is a vivid chronicle of war in the 17th centuryas rare as hen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844137414</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Cobb 1788037812|title=The ResistanceFraternity of the Estranged: The French Fight Against the Nazis |rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=''Allo, Allo'', ''The Secret Army'' and numerous films have painted a fairly romantic picture of the resistance — beret-wearing men and women who dart about blowing up trains and shooting Nazis. The reality, according to Matthew Cobb's ''The Resistance'', was somewhat different. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737123X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Downing |title=Sealing Their Fate: 22 Days That Decided the Second World War|rating=4|genre=History|summary=In this detailed volume, David Downing makes a convincing argument that for Homosexual Rights in the brief 22-day period between 17 November and 8 December 1941England, the actions of the various Axis powers and their Allied opponents marked the beginning of the end of a war that still had several years left to run – the turning point famously described by Churchill as ''the end of the beginning''. After Pearl Harbor, America entered the war, making it a true world war 1891- though it was actually Hitler that declared war on America, ironically – on 11 December, just after these events take place. ''Sealing Their Fate'' opens with the launch of the Japanese fleet and ends with that same fleet's attack on Pearl Harbor, but it's not specifically about Japan and America.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847371310</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard D Ryder|title=Nelson, Hitler and Diana|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Was Horatio Nelson, a navy officer of great renown, forever thrusting himself into the limelight, doing it because his mother passed away when he was nine? Was Hitler overly affected by his father dying in a time of paternal disapproval, and a kind of Oedipal reaction to being the man in the house making him suffer when she herself died? And can Diana, Princess of Wales' parents' divorce lead to a claim she was a sufferer of borderline personality disorder?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401662</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1908|author=William Blades, Randolph G. Adams, Bagher Bachchha (Editor) |title=Enemies of BooksBrian Anderson|rating=4.5

|summary=William BladesOriginally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a Victorian printer crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and bibliographer1908, is best remembered as three books on the biographer nature of William Caxtonhomosexuality appeared. He also wrote this very concise work on the threats to books from such enemies as fire, water, gas They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and heatJohn Addington Symonds, dust and neglect, and ignorance and bigotry. In as well as the process he slips in several interesting historical factsheterosexual Havelock Ellis. The chapter on fire notes Exploring the vast destruction margins of books in society and studying homosexuality was common on the Great Fire of London in 1666European Continent, as well as but barely talked about in the Gordon Riots just over a century laterUK, and closer so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to his own timethe scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the destruction of a priceless law library at Strasbourgstruggle for recognition and equality, ravaged by leading to the shells milestone legalisation of the German army during the Francosame-Prussian war of 1870sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904799361</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul R Spiring (Editor) 1910593508|title=The World of Vanity Fair - Bertram Fletcher RobinsonApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

|summary=It This incredible graphic novel is huge: not only in space but in time and structure; a love letter to the Moon landings and in the non-material sphere of passion for the complex interplay of meaningssubject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, symbols Chris Baker and significancesMike Collins. Miller's book, intentionally combining cultural This is a story we know well and political historybecause of this, art criticism and travel writing, manages the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to reflect that hugeness without weighting the reader down book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too much austere detailshort.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861979088</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Mullen and James Munson1786331047|title=The Smell of Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the ContinentSecret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport

|summary=When Frances Trollope landed The basic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, some of which were deliberately obscured at Calais the time for various reasons, have long since been established. For the last few months of their lives in Russia the 1830sformer Tsar and Tsarina, she overheard a conversation between two travellerstheir children and few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the younger commenting on the dreadful smellrevolutionary regime had them all shot and bayoneted to death in circumstances which, once the older and more experienced telling him it news was ''the smell of'' ''the continent''confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230741908</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Jennifer Worth|title=Farewell To The East End|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=I am interested in social history and, as a mother, the job of midwives fascinates me. Combining these two subjects, ''Farewell Move on to the East End'' is a riveting read. The author Jennifer Worth was a midwife and nurse, working with the nuns at Nonnatus House in the East End of London [[Newest Home and this volume (her third book on this topic) covers the 1950s.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297844652</amazonuk>}}Family Reviews]]