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[[Category:New Reviews|History]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jo Woolf1785633457|title= The Great HorizonCharging Around: 50 Tales Exploring the Edges of ExplorationEngland by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating= 3.5|genre= HistoryTravel|summary= Jo Woolf Clive Wilkinson has compiled a brilliant set history of fifty short insights into the lives and achievements of some amazingly brave peopletravelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. Their fearless journeys have helped us unlock many of As he neared his eightieth birthday the mysteries idea of exploring the wildest parts edges of our worldEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, and also given us an understanding of what it is like to should be faced with the most terrible conditions a pleasant holiday for Clive and still have the determination his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B09BLBP3P8|title=Neville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Received wisdom and grit simplified narrative often lead to carry onmisconceptions about history. This book could be viewed One such is the scrubbing from the popular imagination of the early days of World War II from 1939-40, known as a taster which encourages us to seek the ''Phoney War''. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out , and read more about some of Churchill coming in to save the most iconic explorersday. Their stories are pretty incredible Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and Woolf does them justiceyet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of vital significance in how the war played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985880</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Allan Hailstone3756228711|title=Berlin in the Cold WarCDC: 1959 to 1966The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer

|summary=''Berlin in The history of the Cold War: 1959-1966development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.'' contains almost 200 photographs taken by author / photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits  Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has chosen to tell us about the city during this period. The images provide an insight into the changing nature short, but explosive, history of the divide between East and West Berlin and Control Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. It's a glimpse into life fascinating tale, told in the city during the Cold Wara mixture of technological summary and wry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445672901</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Alan MooreheadJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title= The Russian RevolutionFritz and Kurt|rating= 4|genre= HistoryConfident Readers|summary= First published We start with the pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 19581930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbours, Moorheadbeing dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and at a vocational school. Kurt has to 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 a light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's account is regarded will, and instead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as one did all the round-ups of Jews. These in their turn leave the most succinct accounts younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of its subjectan evacuation to Britain or the US, while Fritz and now reprinted his father are, unknown initially to mark each other, packed off on the centenary of same train to Buchenwald and the revolutionstone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445667320</amazonuk>024156574X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adrian MourbyJohn Henry Phillips|title=Rooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great HotelsSearch|rating=45|genre=TravelHistory|summary=Adrian Mourby has given us Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in the dirt looking to find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Archaeology must be a flying visit fair bit harder when you set out to each find some specific thing. This book is a case of fifty grand hotelsthe latter, from fourteen regions as our author promises to locate the topic of the worldtitular search. And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, with the hotels in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by regiontarget might not exist any more – oh, and it's underwater, which helps when he cannot dive. Latching on to give something of an overall picture. So what makes a hotel particular D-Day veteran through helping the heroic old man'grand'? The first hotel s visit back to France, our author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to call itself 'grand' Normandy, and that he was in covent Garden in 1774 and lucky to survive when it ushered in sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, the beginning vast majority of a period when a hotel whom perished. Who else would be a lifestyle choice rather than a refuge make such promises to someone in their nineties?|isbn=1472146182}}{{Frontpage|isbn= B09F4CTKJR|title= Flights for those without friends Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It's the later stages of World War I and family conveniently nearbythe United States has just entered the conflict. The hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and each faced a different set of challengesjoined the 17 Aero Squadron. We begin This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the Americas, move first to be attached to the United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia RAF and Turkey then northern Africa, India and Asiathe first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. AustraliaBut before that can happen, it seems, does not go for Petrol has to master flying the grandnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785782754</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Philip Matyszak0578761718|title=24 Hours in Ancient RomeThe Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver

|summary= I've never been that interested The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in Ancient Romerecords. Blame my teachersSadly, or our oh-so-dry visits to Roman villas with their earnest interpretation panels, or perhaps I just daydreamed through all the original church was destroyed in the interesting bits… Somehow I entered adulthood with Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the impression that all Romans were bloodthirsty fire and hedonistic heathens with little to recommend themthen survived for centuries until World War II, when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that wasn't the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the church'Mea culpa''s walls were transported to Fulton, you might sayMissouri. So when my eye fell upon Philip Matyszak's ''24 Hours There, in Ancient Rome'', and its claim to introduce readers to the real Ancient Rome by examining the lives grounds of ordinary peopleWestminster College, I decided it the church was high time rebuilt and today serves as a memorial to update my education. And the lovely artwork on the front cover made this book all the more appealingWinston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782438564</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sharon Bennett Connolly1784385166|title= Heroines The Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of the Medieval WorldNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse|rating= 5|genre= History|summary= Many women in medieval times left their mark on history, What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but as a rule they have been neglected by biographers are emblematic of the Third Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and historians as there is too little surviving information for them to have even brief biographies images from that time may be less familiar to themselvesyou. Ms Connolly In this short volume, Roger Moorhouse has adopted an enterprising solution attempted to illustrate the problem by writing a general account on a broadly thematic basisperiod of the Third Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445662647</amazonuk> 

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Kurt AndersenLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title= FantasylandTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes|rating= 4.5|genre= History Graphic Novels|summary= Fantasyland covers I never really followed the history events of America from 1517 to 2017 Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in awesome detailthe second half of their teens has other priorities, you know. Covering five centuries I certainly didn't know of tempestuous history, Andersen paints the conjuring weeks of America in vivid relief. Discussing everything protests and hunger strikes from pilgrims to politiciansthe students before the massacre and the birth of the Tank Man image, I didn't know how the exhilarating gold rush to alternative factsarea had long been a venue for political protest, seminal episodes are explored and I didn't know more than a spit about the people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in forensic detail with razor sharp witgiving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785038656</amazonuk>1684056993

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Twigs Way0648684806|title=Tea Gardens (Britain's Heritage Series)Clara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|genre=LifestyleBiography|summary=Tea Gardens really began in London in The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the late 18th century: a trip to Kings Cross or St Pancras time she was effectively a trip just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to the country in those dayssail with her parents and three brothers. Men had their coffee housesInstead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, but they were not places where women could or would be seenboth in and out of school. Tea She was introduced to England the only child in the 17th century but it household and her childhood was not until 1784 that glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the high duty United States and life was hard, as Clara was reduced from 119% to 12½% find out when she and tea became her grandparents eventually went to join the drink of choice for the nationfamily. Until then the working classes Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had been fuelled largely by cheap ginten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. OnlyAs the eldest girl, where a heavy burden would this beverage be drunk? One answer was the pleasure gardens where the fashionable went to see fall on Clara and be seen: by the mid 1600s tea Wisconsin was also being served in places such as Ranelagh Gardensa rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445670011</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Nathen Amin1783784350|title=The House of BeaufortThis Golden Fleece: The Bastard Line that Captured the CrownA Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating= 45|genre= History|summary= It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The family name job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the story of Beaufort played wool's history and how it had made and changed the landscape. She'd grown up on a major part sheep farm in British history during Suffolk - '' a free-range child on the fourteenth farm'' - and learned to spin, knit and weave from her mother and fifteenth centuriesher mother's friend. It therefore seems remarkable that little has been written about them until the appearance of this book This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445647648</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rory Stewart1789017977|title= The Marches|rating= 5|genre= Travel|summary= The Observer quote on the front of the paperback edition of StewartRonnie and Hilda's latest book observes ''This is travel writing at its finest.'' Perhaps, but to call it travel writing is to totally under-sell it. This is erudition at its finest. Stewart has the background to do thisRomance: he had an international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the Foreign Office, and then (to his father's, bemusement, shall we say) became an MP. Oh, and he walked 6,000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. A walk along the Scottish borders should be Towards a doddle by comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581892</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewNew Life after World War II|author=Josh Dean|title=The Taking of K-129: The Most Daring Covert Operation in HistoryWendy Williams|rating=54

|summary=In February 1968 Ronnie Williams was the Soviet nuclear missile submarine K-129 left the port son of Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka peninsula with a crew of 98 submarinersThomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. The captain and executive officers There's some doubt as to whether or not they were experiencedever married or even Harry's birthdate: the only factor giving cause for concern he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was that the crew had only recently returned to base already many years older than Ethel and were expecting he might well have shaved a longer break and were only back at sea because two sister ships had experienced mechanical problems and were unfit for combat controlsfew years off his age. The Division Commander complained that For a while the decision family was cruel quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and potentially recklessfive-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. He would One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be proved right - but not publicly well- as Kturned-129 went down out and this would stay with all hands in March 1968him throughout his life. It was a while before He joined the sSoviet navy realised that it had lost one of its submarines and despite an extensive search they couldn't find itarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445674742</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Parker1980891117|title=50 Things You Should Know About G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the Vikingslife of George Engleheart|author=John Webley

|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Art|summary=The Vikings have got a lot to own up to. A huge DNA study in 2014 George Engleheart was one of the first thing that proved to the Orkney residents that they had Viking blood in their veins – they had been insisting it was that leading portrait miniaturists of the Irish. The Vikings it was that forced our English king's army to march from Georgian London to Yorkshire to kill off one invasion, only to spend with a career lasting from the next fortnight schlepping back 1770s to Hastings to try and fend off another – and the Normans had Regency era. He was also one of the same Norse origin as the first lotmost prolific, painting nearly 5, hence the name000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). There is a Thames Valley village just outside Henley – ie pretty damned far from Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the coast – that has a Viking longship on its signpost. Yes, they got to a lot names of each of places, from Greenland to Kievhis clients, from Murmansk to Turkey and the Med, and their misaligned history subsequently transcribed them into what is well worth visiting – particularly on these pagesreferred to as his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784937908</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emma Kay1789016304|title=Vintage KitchenaliaWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=3.5

|summary=Over the half century Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and more that Iwas entranced by what she discovered, particularly in 've been preparing meals on a regular basis I've seen food preparation move from being just something you did, to an obsession akin to a religion. My first kitchen had nothing in the way The Diary of luxury - it was there to make meals as nutritiously and economically as possible: my current kitchen is not Ann Frank''quitebut then realised that her own family'' state of s stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the artwar years, but it's equipped only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a high standard and is a pleasure country with liberal values who were resistant to work inGerman occupation. But Most people believed that the occupation 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 of all happened to escalate in the equipment which went beforeway that it did, which paved but initial protests melted away as the way to what we have now? organisers became more circumspect. Emma Kay is going to give you It's an atrocity on a quick trip through the historyvast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445657511</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Martyn Beardsley1908745819|title= Waterloo Voices 1815: The Battle at First HandSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= The battle of WaterlooSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, fought they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a midsummer day on rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a muddy field in Belgiumbook calling your name, brought rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering ''an end to two decades older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of war in Europewhere I am. As one Add to that my love of the pivotal events natural world, of those aspects of the nineteenth centurypoetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it has inevitably been the focus of many accounts over the last two hundred yearsfall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445660164</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Rutherford0857058320|title=Landscape GardensLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|genre=ArtHistory|summary=My first experience of a ''bigLord Of All the Dead'' garden was Versailles as is a teenager journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and whilst I was impresseddeath. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, I didnCercas't really like it. I felt stifled and strangely underwhelmed by great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the flatness of it allbook. As luck would have it I then saw Hampton Court and it was official: I was off big gardensHe died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. It would be many years before I revised my opinionCercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. On a trip to Harewood House The question at the centre of this book is whether it was too hot a day is possible for his great uncle to be corralled into the house, so I wandered the gardens and found they were delightful. I felt uplifted. Then a cricket match at Stowe gave me hero whilst having fought for the opportunity to walk the grounds for over an hourwrong side. I was completely won over and a devotee of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. Sarah Rutherford's ''Landscape Gardens'' was an opportunity to put him in context.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445669935</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stuart Maconie0008294011|title= Long Road From JarrowHow to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran|rating= 4.5|genre= Travel History|summary= A little while ago a friend asked me if I cancelled my thought that we were living through what in years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question ''Country WalkingDiscuss the factors which led to...'' I agreed that she was right and wasn' magazine subscription about t certain whether it was a year ago and the only good or bad thing I miss is Stuart Maconiethat we didn's column. His down-to-earth approach and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect and a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admit. Lett know what all 's be honest, though, I picked this one up because of someone else's review, in which I spotted names like Ferryhill and Newton Aycliffe. Places I grew up inwas leading to. Like Maconie I have no connection (think now that I do know . We are in danger of) to the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about losing democracy and whilst it being 's a flawed system I can't think of a whole matrix of events reducible to better one word like Aberfan, Hillsborough, or Orgreaveparticularly as the 'benevolent dictator'is as rare as hen' then somehow it does become part of my history too. Tangentially, at leasts teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785030531</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vicky Hayward1788037812|title=Juan Altamiras' New Art The Fraternity of Cookerythe Estranged: A Spanish Friar's Kitchen NotebookThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=45|genre=CookeryHistory|summary=In 1745 Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a Spanish friary cookcrime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, Juan Altamirasrestrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, published the first edition of his ''New Art of Cookery, Drawn From three books on the School nature of Economic Experience''homosexuality appeared. It contained more than They were written by two hundred recipes for meat, poultry, game, salted homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and fresh fishJohn Addington Symonds, vegetables and dessertsas well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. The style was informal, chatty Exploring the margins of society and humorous on occasions and it studying homosexuality was aimed, not at those who could afford to cook common on a grand scalethe European Continent, but at those with more modest budgetsbarely talked about in the UK, who sometimes needed to cook for large numbers. Whilst so the ingredients publications of these men were - for hugely significant – contributing to the most part - modestly priced there is a stress on the careful combination scientific understanding of flavours homosexuality, and aromas. Spices are used conservatively beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the bluntness milestone legalisation of some Moorish cooking is eschewed same-sex relationships in favour of something much more subtle and we see influences from Altamiras' own region, Aragon, the Iberian court and the New World1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1442279419</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Susan Duxbury-Neumann1910593508|title= What Have the Germans Ever Done for Us?: A History of the German Population of Great BritainApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating= 45|genre= History|summary= The adapted Monty Pythonesque rhetorical question takes some time This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to provide the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a full answerstory we know well and because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the 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 this slim but useful volume does so very wellthat dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664860</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gillian Tindall1786331047|title= The Tunnel Through TimeRace to Save the Romanovs: A New Route for an Old London Journey|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=This book traces the course of historical journeys across the city in time and space, examining how the areas above the new Crossrail route, the largest building project currently under construction in Europe offering high speed links across London, have changed over The Truth Behind the centuries, with destruction and renewal being a constantly recurring process in the citySecret Plans to Rescue Russia's history. It is a fascinating, compellingly readable exploration through the historical highways and byways of the metropolis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587793</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewImperial Family|author=Jonathan Trigg|title=Voices of the Flemish Waffen-SS: The Final Testament of the OostfrontersHelen Rappaport|rating=3.5

|summary=In The basic facts about the week I write thisdeaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, Trump has come under fire for not condemning fascistic behaviour in America from some Neo-Nazis. It strikes me that of which were deliberately obscured at the ''Neo-'' is a pointless dignification – yestime for various reasons, they cannot be deemed to follow Hitler precisely as he's have long dead and burnt, so they're kind of new, but common sense obliges me to just call them Nazissince been established. Their excuse is they feel America has been invaded by For the enemy – but what if you were indeed under occupation? Could you see yourself working for last few months of their lives in Russia the forces that had indeed invaded you? The author begins by pointing out that several countries were invaded by the Nazisformer Tsar and Tsarina, their children and they have different feelings about the people who worked against the commonly-few remaining servants were held nationalistic aimin increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. France hates her collaboratorsTo prevent them from being rescued, but just north of in July 1918 the border things are different – revolutionary regime had them all shot and bayoneted to death in circumstances which, once the picture is a lot more muddy as a resultnews was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445666367</amazonuk>