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[[Category:New Reviews|History]]==History==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=R A Scotti|title=The Lost Mona Lisa|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=One of the few things I remember from those writers' courses and advice books – and I can hear from here you wished I remembered more of them – was the merit in being aware of anniversaries, especially in your area of expertise, and having the ability to sell articles concerning historical events linked into centenaries, modern comparisons, and so on. Well, here is the book equivalent, and although it's early – it's looking back on the summer of 1911 – this stands as quality enough to deny any latecomers shelf room.|amazonuk=<amazonuk!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->0553818309</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Greg Grandin1785633457|title=FordlandiaCharging Around: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=In 1927, Exploring the Ford Motor company bought a huge tract Edges of land in Brazil, for the purpose of the company growing its own rubber for use in making its cars. They planted rubber trees and built a factory and houses, and a number of top managers from the company were posted to Fordlandia to run the operation. Huge amounts of money were pumped into Fordlandia, and Ford made great claims for their plans. However, the project was a spectacular failure, and it lasted less than twenty years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311478</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewEngland by Electric Car|author=Dominique Lapierre|title=A Rainbow in the Night |rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=A book integrating otherwise piecemeal news stories picked up over the past forty years into a coherent explanation is always welcome. This book explores South Africa's history and development, from the earliest Dutch arrivals in 1652 to the first racially integrated elections in 1994.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818477</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Doug Stewart|title=The Boy Who Would Be ShakespeareClive Wilkinson

|genre=HistoryTravel|summary=In the late 18th century, keen to impress the Shakespeare-obsessed father who paid him little attention, 19 year old William Henry Ireland forged Clive Wilkinson has a couple history of Elizabethan documents to show himtravelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. With the older man completely taken in, As he neared his child then pretended he'd found a trunk full of lost artefacts belonging to eightieth birthday the Bard – love letters to Anne Hathaway, a declaration idea of his Protestant faith, exploring the manuscript edges of King LearEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and even entirely new plays. Ireland fooled not only his fatherwife, but also many of the prominent Londoners of the timeJoan, including Robert Southey, James Boswell, and the future William IV.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818310</amazonuk>shouldn't it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim KraneB09BLBP3P8|title=Dubai: The Story of the WorldNeville Chamberlain's Fastest CityWar: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager

|summary=In Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the 1950's, Dubai contained just a few thousand inhabitants scraping a living. By 1985, it had grown, but Sheikh Mohammed was still laughed at when he said that he wanted to make it a popular destination for tourists. With imagination of the addition early days of artificial islandsWorld War II from 1939-40, known as the world's tallest building'Phoney War''. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, an indoor ski slopewar breaking out, and much moreChurchill coming in to save the day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it's now one was of the world's foremost cities - but as headlines showed last year, the stellar growth may have been extremely costly, vital significance in terms of finances, environmental problems, and how the quality of life for some of its inhabitantswar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848870094</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Stonor Saunders3756228711|title=CDC: The Woman Who Shot Mussolini|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Most British titled families of the 19th and 20th centuries have produced their fair share of rebels. Yet few came as close to changing the course of European history as the Honourable Violet Gibson, one of eight children of Baron Ashbourne, happy years with a Protestant Anglo-Irish peer and MP in Disraelispectacular IT 'Phenomena's government during the 1870s.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571239773</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Josephine Wilkinson|title=The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=Before her marriage to King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn had already been courted by three suitors, any of whom might have become her husband - and possibly saved her from her eventual end on the scaffold. The first was her Irish cousin James Butler, later Earl of Ormond, whom she was at one time intended to marry in order to settle a family dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. After their marriage negotiations came to an end in the face of legal obstacles, she became betrothed to Henry Percy, heir to the Duke of Northumberland. With a little help from the scheming Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke, who had little time for his son, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should be dismissed forthwith. Soon after this the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there was fierce competition from his sovereign, and her destiny was sealed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Caroline Moorehead |title=Dancing to the Precipice : Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French RevolutionHans Bodmer

|summary=Two hundred years ago, with the fall of the monarchy and the Napoleonic wars, France underwent one cataclysmic change after another. There were many who witnessed and experienced the volatile age at first hand, but few left a more detailed record than the subject of this biography, Lucie-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pin.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099490528</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Van der Kiste|title=William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious Revolution|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=At school I remember spending a lot of time on the Tudors and the early Stuarts – obviously great favourites of the history teacher and then galloping unceremoniously through the intervening years until we reached another ''meaningful'' period – the Victorian era. The importance history of William and Mary was completely overlooked in favour the development of a quick mention IT could fill books of the fact that William wasn't in direct line of succession to the throne and Mary had never wanted to marry him in the first placeseveral hundred pages. Their successor, Queen Anne I remember simply as 'tables'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075094577X</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=James Delgado|title=Kamikaze: History's Greatest Naval Disaster|rating=4Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that.5|genre=History|summary=When Mongol leaderHe has chosen to tell us about the short, but explosive, Khubilai Khanhistory of the Control Data Company, achieved what his Grandfather Genghis had failed to do in conquering ChinaCDC, for whom he inherited the worldworked. It's largest and most sophisticated navy. However, in attempting to utilise this to expand his empire further to Java, Vietnam and mainly Japana fascinating tale, he lost the entire armada told in a few short years. New marine archeological evidence from Japan, ironically with the site discovered in the 1990s in the construction mixture of new defences from the weather, has raised questions on the traditional view that the defeat of the two Japanese invasion forces of 1274 and particlularly 1281 were solely due to the intervention of the weather technological summary and what Japanese culture claim was a Kamikaze (or ''divine wind'') summoned by the Godswry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532581</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy Dronfield and David BaldwinZiggy Greene|title=The Kingmaker's Sisters: Six Powerful Women in the Wars of the RosesFritz and Kurt

|genre=BiographyConfident Readers|summary=Due to We start with the small amount pair of surviving personal sourcesbrothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any book which purports Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to be the synagogue choir and at a biography of 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 15-century subject light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is almost inevitably going to be more a cave to Hitler'life s will, and times' than instead of having a lifenational vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. In ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the case round-ups of women who were Jews. These in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters but not sovereigns anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or consorts themselvesthe US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the lack same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of data will be even more acute.all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0750950765</amazonuk>024156574X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul StrathernJohn Henry Phillips|title=The Artist, The Philosopher and The WarriorSearch|rating=3.5

|summary=The interaction between three very differentArchaeology 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 fair bit harder when you set out to say contrasting, personalities find some specific thing. This book is a case of the Renaissance period sets the scene for what latter, as our author promises to be an intriguing titlelocate the topic of the titular search. In 1502 And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the paths of Cesare Borgiasearch area is a wide one, notorious son of the equally infamous Pope Alexander VItarget might not exist any more – oh, Niccolò Machiavelliand it's underwater, when he cannot dive. Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the intellectual and diplomatheroic old man's visit back to France, our author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, and Leonardo da Vincithat he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, at the time best known as a military engineer though remembered today primarily as a great artist, were destined vast majority of whom perished. Who else would make such promises to cross.someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845951212</amazonuk>1472146182

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Timothy W RybackB09F4CTKJR|title=Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His LifeFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=As It's 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 later stages of World War I and passionate reader, as around 1200 surviving volumes once in his possession now in the Rare Book Division of United States has just entered the Library of Congress, and conflict. Petrol Petronus is a smaller quantity in Brown University, Rhode Island, demonstrate. Among them were world literature classics, such as 'Robinson Crusoe', 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', young American who has signed up and 'Gulliver's Travels'joined the 17 Aero Squadron. He also owned an edition of This company was the collected works of Shakespearefirst US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, in hand-tooled Moroccan leather with a gold-embossed eagle flanked by his initials on the spine. The Bard, he once said, was greatly superior first to be attached to Goethe and Schiller.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532174</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Druin Burch|title=Taking the Medicine|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=In 1898, Burch points out that a new drug was developed RAF and marketed for the treatment of tuberculosis by Bayer & Co. TB is such an ancient enemy of man that there is apparently evidence of an earlier strain first to be found sent into the skies to fight the Germans in Egyptian mummiesactive combat. The German firm had discovered a chemical But before that seemed to work wellcan happen, and patients and indeed their own staff, who were tested seemed Petrol has to respond well - it was named Heroin - and its addictive effects were at first missedmaster flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951506</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sian Rees0578761718|title=Sweet Water and Bitter: The Ships That Stopped the Slave TradeInspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver

|summary=The Act for church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the Abolition City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, the Slave Trade original church was passed destroyed in Britain the Great Fire of London in March 1807, and the last legal British slave ship left Africa seven months later1666. Other countries were slow to follow suit. Everyone It was rebuilt in Britain knew there would be resistancePortland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the fire and then survived for centuries until World War II, and when it was again ruined by bombs during the abolitionist Granville Sharpe purchased land in Sierra Leone to Blitz. But that wasn'repatriatet the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the church' freed slavess walls were transported to Fulton, Ottobah CugoanaMissouri. There, a former slave living in Londonthe grounds of Westminster College, asked if it the church was possible for 'rebuilt and today serves as a fountain memorial to send forth both sweet water and bitterWinston Churchill.' Could the slave trade, he wondered, be abolished from West Africa - when West Africa was its source?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951174</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Grimson1784385166|title=The Isle of ManThird Reich in 100 Objects: Portrait A Material History of a NationNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse

|summary=To many What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of us, the Isle Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of Man is probably best known for the Tynwald, the annual TT motorcycle races, Third Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and as a holiday resort. I must admit that my knowledge of it extended little further than images from that, and therefore found this book invaluabletime may be less familiar to you. In these 550 pagesthis short volume, profusely illustrated with photographs and maps, I imagine that few if any questions on Roger Moorhouse has attempted to illustrate the subject are left unanswered. John Grimson has lived there for nearly forty years, and as well as working with several period of the island's local authorities, was active as a long-distance runner and cyclist until his early seventiesThird Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709081030</amazonuk> 

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas AsbridgeLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=The CrusadesTiananmen 1989: The War for the Holy LandOur Shattered Hopes

|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=The word 'Crusades' I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the second half of their teens has been misappropriated and often used in various other contexts over the passing yearspriorities, you know. In their original meaning they were a series I certainly didn't know of holy wars during the medieval era between weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the Christian and Muslim world, fighting for dominion over students before the Holy Land between 1095 massacre and 1291 as the defenders birth of western civilization formed expeditions travelling across the face of Tank Man image, I didn't know how the known world from Europearea had long been a venue for political protest, their sole aim being to conquer and defend an isolated swathe I didn't know more than a spit about the people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of territory centred on Jerusalemprotests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0743268601</amazonuk>1684056993

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste0648684806|title=Sons, Servants and StatesmenClara Colby: The Men in Queen Victoria's LifeInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating=4.5

|summary=Like The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the first Elizabeth more books than are strictly necessary have been written about Queen Victoria, USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but John Van der Kiste has taken the unusual step because of using the men in some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her life to illuminate some dark corners which might other wise have parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained unexploredwith her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of school. Of course She was the most famous man only child in the household and her lifechildhood was glorious. By contrast, husband her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and Prince Consort Albert isn't 'sonlife was hard, servant or statesman' as promised by Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the title of the bookfamily. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, but he established a trendseven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. VictoriaAs the eldest girl, often regarded as a difficult woman to please, heavy burden would always have a man in her life who would, to fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a greater or lesser extent, dominate herrude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750937882</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Marr1783784350|title=The Making of Modern This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain: From Queen Victoria to V.E. Day's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=4.5

|summary=This bookIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The 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 BBC TV series which complements itlength and breadth of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, must confirm Andrew Marrdiscovering and telling the story of wool's status as one of history and how it had made and changed the most entertaining and compulsive historianlandscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk -cum'' a free-presenters working today. His previous project, range child on postwar Britain, was hard the farm'' - and learned to faultspin, knit and anyone who enjoyed that will certainly relish thisweave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230709427</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789017977|authortitle=Patrick Casey Ronnie and Richard I HaleHilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|titleauthor=For College, Club & Country - A History of Clifton Rugby Football ClubWendy Williams

|summary=Clifton Rugby Football Club can proudly trace its history back to the very emergence of Ronnie Williams was the sport son of rugby unionThomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. Founded in September 1872, the same year that William Webb Ellis, who is reputed There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been the rebellious Rugby schoolboy who first ran with the ballborn in 1863, diedbut he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. In reality, it is highly likely that For a while the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the Webb Ellis story is something of 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a spin job on behalf of Rugby School, although it very different lifestyle. One thing he did mean that Rugby School inherit from his father was able his need to impose its rules on be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the game army at a time when most public schools had their own rules for playing versions of the gameeighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312756</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Gay1980891117|title=ModernismG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: The Lure A year in the life of Heresy - From Baudelaire to Beckett and BeyondGeorge Engleheart|author=John Webley|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryArt|summary=It is impossible not to be impressed by George Engleheart was one of the sheer scope of cultural historian Peter Gay's 2007 study leading portrait miniaturists of ModernismGeorgian London, newly released in this paperback editionwith a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. He notes in was also one of the introduction most prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of that it is not a 'comprehensive history' but rather 'a study time he carefully recorded the names of each of its rise, triumphshis clients, and decline'. What is remarkable though, subsequently transcribed them into what is the attempt referred to include the whole gamut of artistic fields in this coherent studyas his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099441969</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste1789016304|title=Jonathan WildWar and Love: Conman A family's testament of anguish, endurance and Cutpursedevotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=45

|summary=Born towards the end of the seventeenth century Jonathan Wild was Melanie Martin read about what happened to become the eighteenth century's most famous criminal, plying his trade Dutch Jews in a rather curious fashion. He occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was born entranced by what she discovered, particularly in Wolverhampton ''The Diary of parents described as Ann Frank''mean but honest'then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war 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 were resistant to German occupation. It seems likely 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 he first travelled the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to London escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the servant of a lawyer where he was eventually to settle, leaving his wife and child to fend for themselvesorganisers became more circumspect. It was whilst serving 's an atrocity on a term vast scale but made up of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter that he mixed with the cream tens of London's criminal underclass and learned the rudiments thousands of his tradeindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848682190</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Greer1908745819|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSurfacing|author=Ian Mortimer|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryKathleen Jamie

|summary=The medievalSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, in fact time-honoured, view of King Henry V as they tell you ''this one of Englandhas your name on it''s greatest heroes was propagated though . Mostly we take them at their word, or not originated by Shakespeare, and again more recently to some extent by Olivierbut rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's portrayal in filma rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. At least one historian has called him The blurb speaks of the author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the greatest man poetic and lyrical that ever ruled England''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 fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby Lester0857058320|title=The Fourth Part of Lord Of All the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapDead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5

|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, ''Lord Of All the highest price ever paid publicly for Dead'' is a historical document, by journey to uncover the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public displayauthor's lost ancestor's life and death. No ordinary map, this Cercas is sometimes described as Americasearching for the meaning behind his great uncle's birth certificatedeath in the Spanish Civil War. It Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in figure who looms large over the 16th century, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover more, and question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the resultwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts0008294011|title=The Madness of Queen MariaHow to Lose a Country: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune 7 Steps from Democracy to be born in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDictatorship|author=Steven M Gillon|title=The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours AfterEce Temelkuran

|summary=The assassination of President Kennedy came at A little while ago a pivotal moment friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what in my life and for more than forty years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question ''Discuss the factors which led to...'' Iagreed that she was right and wasn've read most of t certain whether it was a good or bad thing that we didn't know what has been written about the eventall 'this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. ItWe are in danger of losing democracy and whilst it's been of variable quality, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publicly. a flawed system Ican'd come to the point t think of wondering if there was anything new to be saida better one, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – particularly as the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's Presidencyteeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella Tillyard 1788037812|title=A Royal AffairThe Fraternity of the Estranged: George III and His Troublesome Siblings|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=King George III was not the luckiest of English sovereigns. America, and then his sons, The Fight for Homosexual Rights in that order, gave him no end of grief, and the last few years of his life were clouded by madness. It is thus often overlooked thatEngland, before these troubles arose to haunt this most conscientious monarch, he also had a thankless task in trying to control his siblings.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099428563</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1891-1908|author=Andy Beckett |title=When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the SeventiesBrian Anderson

|summary=Having grown up during the era and followed the major news stories Originally passed in the papers as they happened, I was fascinated to find everything (well1885, nearly everything) in the 500-page narrative law that comprises had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this booktime, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. It was quite a rocky ride from Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the election nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Heath in June 1970 through the three-day week, record British inflation Carpenter and the IMF rescue, industrial disputes and picket battles at Saltley and GrunwickJohn Addington Symonds, as well as the Gay Liberation Front and heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the stirrings margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the green movementEuropean Continent, but barely talked about in the rise of Arthur ScargillUK, and so the discovery publications of North Sea oil. Then there was these men were hugely significant – contributing to the survival scientific understanding of James Callaghan's minority administration despite the oddshomosexuality, and thanks largely to his adroit handling of beginning the situation in keeping both Tony Benn struggle for recognition and the Lib-Lab pact on boardequality, followed by leading to the winter milestone legalisation of discontent, culminating same-sex relationships in Thatcher at No 101967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057122136X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mortimer 1910593508|title=The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth CenturyApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

|summary=What would happen if we twenty-first century people took This incredible graphic novel is a trip back in time love letter to the fourteenth century? It would be very like visiting another countryMoon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. Even our landscape would be greatly changed. Ian Mortimer takes this approach This is a story we know well and, applying his theory because of living historythis, treats his readers to an objective and entertaining view of one of the most stereotypical centuries authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in medieval historythe blanks. The fourteenth century has not These shortcuts are the only castles, knights, tournaments, and wars, but also gave birth downside to many of the creative minds associated with medieval England like Chaucer and the Gawain-poet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950992</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alison Weir|title=The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn|rating=5|genre=History|summary=Wot? More Tudors? Sorry, yesbook. Come on, be honest: If you love 'em, I love 'em, we all love 'em. My favourite writer ve ever read a comic book adaptation of popular history is adding to a film you will be familiar with the market writing for a third time about possibly history's most dramatic rise slight feeling that there are scenes missing 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 dialogue has been the scandal of Europe, this woman; had captured a king, unseated a queen, and promoted a new religiontrimmed. Her fall couldn't have been swifter, harder or more ruthless and her little neck was severed on This is a scaffold at the Tower of London. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224063197</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tracy Borman |title=Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=So many biographies graphic novel that could easily have been written about the life and three times of England's longest-lived as long and longest reigning sovereign that one might wonder whether there is anything new left to say about her. However Tracy Borman has found an interesting new angle – by telling the story of her life through the women closest to herstill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082264</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tamim Ansary 1786331047|title=Destiny DisruptedThe Race to Save the Romanovs: A History of The Truth Behind the World Through Islamic EyesSecret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport

|summary=I enjoyed history at school The basic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and whilst we didn't always work our way through it chronologically I cameAlexandra, over some of which were deliberately obscured at the timefor various reasons, to have a working knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romanslong since been established. I knew about For the rise last few months of Christianity their lives in Russia the former Tsar and spoke knowledgeably about medieval EnglandTsarina, the Renaissance their children and the Reformation but was perhaps less taken by the Industrial Revolution and all that followedfew remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. I was au fait with the east but it was mainly To prevent them from the perspective of exploration – or even exploitation. It was an education based on the virtues of the solidbeing rescued, white, English, Christian middle classes and it completely ignored histories from in July 1918 the perspective of other religions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586486063</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Elliott J Gorn |title=Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One|rating=4|genre=History|summary=John Dillinger was born and brought up in Indiana. His childhood was no better revolutionary regime had them all shot and no worse than most but the early part of his adult life was bayoneted to be blighted by a spell death in prison when he was convicted of an attack on a man in a botched hold-up. Hoping for leniency he pleaded guilty but was sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonmentcircumstances which, whilst once the man with him pleaded not guilty and when convicted received a shorter sentence. It's easy to see where Dillinger's contempt for the law news was spawnedconfirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0195304837</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Anthony Read |title=The World Move on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism |rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=In 1919 the world 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 of the Tsarist regime, one tyranny was supplanted by another which was even worse. Lenin took the new upstart socialist republic out of the conflict, accepting unbelievably harsh peace terms from Germany in order to save and nurture the still fragile Bolshevik revolution. Consolidating his power 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 of the former sovereign, his consort and their children), they were less than enthusiastic about Bolshevism, which secured only 24% of the votes in the new assembly. Lenin dealt promptly with the problem by shutting the assembly down.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844138321</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Conn Iggulden and David Iggulden|title=The Dangerous Book of Heroes|rating=3|genre=History|summary=For most of us (well, for me certainly) the word 'hero' summons an image of capes, spandex and garish primary colours. Conn and David Iggulden have written a book about the other kind – the every day heroes from history, who achieve incredible things without the aid of superpowers.  From household names like Horatio Nelson and Winston Churchill, to lesser known people, like Aphra Behn and Hereward the Wake, ''The Dangerous Book of Heroes'' covers a comprehensive range of characters from the history of the British Empire. From campaigners for political change, brilliant battle strategists to daring explorers, each and every one of the people in this book lived brilliant lives and changed the world forever.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000726092X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Timothy Brook |title=Vermeer's Hat: The seventeenth century and the dawn of the global world|rating=4|genre=History|summary=If a picture paints a thousand words, then Timothy Brook provides the dictionary we can use to make sense of the vocabulary. Using five paintings by the seventeenth century Delft artist Johannes Vermeer along with a blue and white porcelain plate and the works of two of Vermeer's contemporaries, Brook demonstrates how the far flung corners of the seventeenth century world were drawn together by the ambitions of European merchants and the ability of Asia, Africa and the Americas to provided the materials to fulfil them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681200</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Pete Brown |title=Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Being a beer writer can't be the easiest route to respect in journalism. But with this book Pete Brown has done much to counter the sceptical, even dismissive, attitudes which must surround his trade and its subject matter. He has attempted to combine a history of British imperialism and the brewing industry with the comic 'quest' genre of travel writing. Against all the odds, he has largely succeeded.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706355</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Haag |title=The Templars: History and Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Despite being very descriptive, the title of 'The Templars: History and Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons' still doesn't cover the full scope of Michael Haag's book. Notwithstanding its relatively modest page count, ''Templars'' not only manages to place the fascinating tale of the Knights' astonishing rise and spectacular fall in a rich historical context, but also provides an entertaining account of the Templars' 'afterlife': from the Masonic lore of the title to novels, films and games to conspiracy theories. There is also a travel guide [[Newest Home and good list of source materials for further reading.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681537</amazonuk>}}Family Reviews]]