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[[Category:History|*]]
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|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, Edward Said's ''Representations of the highest price ever paid publicly for Intellectual'' is less a historical document, by the Library strict theory of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificatewhat intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what they should be. It is Said clearly rejects the sole survivor comfortable image of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, and was discovered by accident in some archives in intellectual as a German castle in 1901detached expert speaking only to other specialists. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that Instead, he was inspired to discover moreinsists on the intellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and this book unpopular, who speaks truth to power even when it is the resultinconvenient or risky.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>1804272248
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenifer RobertsJacqueline Rose|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalWomen in Dark Times|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time ''The world of the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become unconscious is not the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedroantagonist of political life, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them)its steadfast companion, and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to be born in during the hidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…'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>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stella Tillyard Mary McCarthy|title=A Royal Affair: George III and His Troublesome SiblingsMemories of a Catholic Girlhood
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=King George III was not Mary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the past to piece together the luckiest broken mosaic of English sovereignsher life. AmericaShe attributes her ''burning interest in the past'' to her orphanhood, and then his sonsas she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in the 1918 flu epidemic. This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in that orderMinneapolis, gave him no end of griefMinnesota, and where she lived under the last few years harsh guardianship of his life were clouded by madnessher late father's Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and Aunt Margaret. It is thus often overlooked thatLater, before these troubles arose she moved to Seattle to haunt this most conscientious monarch, he also had live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a thankless task in trying to control his siblingsdifferent kind of upbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099428563</amazonuk>1804271659
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andy Beckett 1785633457|title=When the Lights Went OutCharging Around: Britain in Exploring the SeventiesEdges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryTravel|summary=Having grown up during the era and followed the major news stories in the papers as they happened, I was fascinated to find everything (well, nearly everything) in the 500-page narrative that comprises this book. It was quite Clive Wilkinson has a rocky ride from the election history 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 travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the stirrings idea of exploring the green movement, the rise edges of Arthur Scargill, and the discovery of North Sea oilEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. Then there was the survival of James Callaghan's minority administration despite the oddsIn fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and thanks largely to his adroit handling of the situation in keeping both Tony Benn and the Lib-Lab pact on boardwife, followed by the winter of discontentJoan, culminating in Thatcher at No 10.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057122136X</amazonuk>shouldn't it?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mortimer B09BLBP3P8|title=The Time TravellerNeville Chamberlain's Guide to Medieval EnglandWar: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth CenturyHow Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=What would happen if we twenty-first century people took a trip back in time Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the fourteenth century? It would be very like visiting another country. Even our landscape would be greatly changed. Ian Mortimer takes this approach and, applying his theory scrubbing from the popular imagination of the early days of living historyWorld War II from 1939-40, treats his readers to an objective and entertaining view of one of known as the most stereotypical centuries in medieval history''Phoney War''. The fourteenth century has not only castlesWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, knights, tournamentswar breaking out, and wars, but also gave birth Churchill coming in to many of save the creative minds associated with medieval England like Chaucer day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of vital significance in how the Gawain-poetwar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950992</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Weir3756228711|title=The Lady in the TowerCDC: The Fall of Anne Boleynhappy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer|rating=54
|genre=History
|summary=Wot? More Tudors? Sorry, yes''The history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages. Come on, be honest: you love 'em, I love 'em, we all love 'em.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tracy Borman Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin QueenFritz and Kurt|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyConfident Readers|summary=So many biographies have been written about We start with the 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 neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the life synagogue choir and times of Englandat 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 longest-lived will, and longest reigning sovereign that one might wonder whether there is anything new left instead of having a national vote to say about herkeep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. However Tracy Borman has found These in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an interesting new angle – by telling evacuation to Britain or the story of her life through US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the women closest same train to herBuchenwald and the stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224082264</amazonuk>024156574X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tamim Ansary John Henry Phillips|title=Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic EyesThe Search
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=I enjoyed history at school and whilst we didnArchaeology cannot be child't always work our way through it chronologically I cames play, over timewhen 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 have find some specific thing. This book is a working knowledge case of the ancient Egyptianslatter, Greeks and Romans. I knew about as our author promises to locate the rise topic of Christianity and spoke knowledgeably about medieval England, the Renaissance and titular search. And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the Reformation but was perhaps less taken by search area is a wide one, the Industrial Revolution target might not exist any more – oh, and all that followed. I was au fait with the east but it was mainly from the perspective of exploration – or even exploitation's underwater, when he cannot dive. It was an education based Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the virtues of heroic old man's visit back to France, our author has promised to find the solid, white, Englishlanding craft that delivered him to Normandy, Christian middle classes and that he was lucky to survive when it completely ignored histories sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, the perspective vast majority of other religionswhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1586486063</amazonuk>1472146182
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elliott J Gorn B09F4CTKJR|title=Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number OneFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=John Dillinger was born It's the later stages of World War I and brought the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up in Indianaand joined the 17 Aero Squadron. His childhood This company was no better and no worse than most but the early part of his adult life was first US Aero Squadron to be blighted by a spell trained 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 Canada, the first to be attached to a lengthy term of imprisonment, whilst the man with him pleaded not guilty RAF and when convicted received a shorter sentencethe first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. It's easy But before that can happen, Petrol has to see where Dillinger's contempt for master flying the law was spawnednotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0195304837</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Read 0578761718|title=The World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=In 1919 The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the world City of London from at least 1181, when it was an extremely unstable placefirst mentioned in records. Sadly, They say history often repeats itself, and there were parallels with 1789 - but on the original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a far greater scale. During design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the First fire and then survived for centuries until World WarII, with the Russian revolution and the overthrow of the Tsarist regime, one tyranny when it was supplanted again ruined by another which was even worsebombs during the Blitz. Lenin took But that wasn't the new upstart socialist republic out end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the conflict, accepting unbelievably harsh peace terms stones 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 church's walls were transported to see the end of imperial Russia (if not the cold-blooded butchery of the former sovereignFulton, his consort and their children)Missouri. There, they were less than enthusiastic about Bolshevism, which secured only 24% of the votes in the new assembly. Lenin dealt promptly with grounds of Westminster College, the problem by shutting the assembly downchurch was rebuilt and today serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844138321</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Conn Iggulden and David Iggulden1784385166|title=The Dangerous Book Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of HeroesNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse|rating=35
|genre=History
|summary=For most 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 they are emblematic of us (well, for me certainly) the word Third Reich'hero' summons an image of capes, spandex and garish primary colourss fascist regime in all its iniquity. Conn But some objects and David Iggulden have written a book about the other kind – the every day heroes images from history, who achieve incredible things without the aid of superpowersthat time may be less familiar to you. From household names like Horatio Nelson and Winston ChurchillIn this short volume, Roger Moorhouse has attempted to lesser known people, like Aphra Behn and Hereward the Wake, ''The Dangerous Book of Heroes'' covers a comprehensive range of characters from illustrate the history period of the British Empire. From campaigners for political change, brilliant battle strategists to daring explorers, each and every Third Reich through one hundred of the people in this book lived brilliant lives and changed the world foreverits material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000726092X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Timothy Brook Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=Vermeer's HatTiananmen 1989: The seventeenth century and the dawn of the global worldOur Shattered Hopes|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=If a picture paints a thousand words, then Timothy Brook provides I never really followed the dictionary we can use to make sense events of the vocabulary. Using five paintings by the seventeenth century Delft artist Johannes Vermeer along Tiananmen Square with a blue and white porcelain plate and much attention when it was playing out – someone in the works second half of two their teens has other priorities, you know. I certainly didn't know of Vermeer's contemporaries, Brook demonstrates how the far flung corners weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the seventeenth century world were drawn together by students before the ambitions of European merchants massacre and the ability birth of Asiathe Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, Africa and I didn't know more than a spit about the Americas to provided people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the materials to fulfil themwhole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681200</amazonuk>1684056993
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pete Brown 0648684806|title=Hops and GloryClara Colby: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British EmpireThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday
|rating=4
|genre=TravelBiography|summary=Being a beer writer canThe path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't be the easiest route allowed to respect sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in journalismand out of school. But with this book Pete Brown has done much to counter She was the only child in the scepticalhousehold and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, even dismissiveher family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and life was hard, attitudes which must surround his trade as Clara was to find out when she and its subject matterher grandparents eventually went to join the family. He has attempted to combine Clara would only know her mother for a history of British imperialism few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and the brewing industry with the comic 'quest' genre of travel writingdied in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. Against all As the oddseldest girl, he has largely succeededa heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706355</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Haag 1783784350|title=The TemplarsThis Golden Fleece: History and Myth: From SolomonA Journey Through Britain's Temple to the FreemasonsKnitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Despite being very descriptiveIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, the title of writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The Templars: History job frustrated her and Myth: From Solomon's Temple 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 Freemasons' still doesn't cover British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the full scope story of Michael Haagwool's bookhistory and how it had made and changed the landscape. Notwithstanding its relatively modest page count, ''Templars She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - ' 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 free-range child on the Templarsfarm' 'afterlife': from the Masonic lore of the title - and learned to novelsspin, films knit and games to conspiracy theoriesweave from her mother and her mother's friend. There is also a travel guide and good list of source materials for further reading This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681537</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Wheatcroft 1789017977|title=The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans Ronnie and the Battle for Europe|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The battle for Europe which Andrew Wheatcroft describes in such vivid detail is the culmination of a power struggle between the Ottoman empire, based 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 by the sultan of Turkey, hungry for more territory, and his ministers in 1682 to lead their army against the Habsburgs at Vienna with the ultimate objective of capturing the city, and the ensuing siege a year later. Some historians have seen this as a crucial moment in the history of conflicts between the east and the west, although others consider its status as one of the defining events somewhat over-estimated. Whatever the truth of the matter, the book that tells the story is a vivid chronicle of war in the 17th century.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844137414</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matthew Cobb |title=The ResistanceHilda's Romance: The French Fight Against the Nazis |rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=''Allo, Allo'', ''The Secret Army'' and numerous films have painted Towards 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>}} {{newreviewNew Life after World War II|author=David Downing |title=Sealing Their Fate: 22 Days That Decided the Second World WarWendy Williams
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=In this detailed volumeRonnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. 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, David Downing makes but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a convincing argument that in while the brief 22family was quite well-day period between 17 November and 8 December 1941, to-do but disaster struck in the actions of the various Axis powers 1929 Depression and their Allied opponents marked the beginning of the end of a war that still five-year-old Ronnie had several years left to run – the turning point famously described by Churchill as ''the end of the beginning''adjust to a very different lifestyle. After Pearl Harbor, America entered the war, making it a true world war One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned- though it was actually Hitler that declared war on America, ironically – on 11 December, just after these events take placeout and this would stay with him throughout his life. ''Sealing Their Fate'' opens with He joined 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 Americaarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847371310</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard D Ryder1980891117|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 G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year 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 life of borderline personality disorder?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401662</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGeorge Engleheart|author=William Blades, Randolph G. Adams, Bagher Bachchha (Editor) |title=Enemies of BooksJohn Webley
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryArt|summary=William BladesGeorge Engleheart was one of the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, with a Victorian printer and bibliographer, is best remembered as career lasting from the 1770s to the biographer of William CaxtonRegency era. He was also wrote this very concise work on one of the threats to books from such enemies as firemost prolific, waterpainting nearly 5, gas and heat, dust and neglect, and ignorance and bigotry000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). In the process Throughout most of that time he slips in several interesting historical facts. The chapter on fire notes carefully recorded the vast destruction names of books in the Great Fire each of London in 1666, as well as in the Gordon Riots just over a century laterhis clients, and closer subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his own time, the destruction of a priceless law library at Strasbourg, ravaged by the shells of the German army during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904799361</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul R Spiring (Editor) 1789016304|title=The World War and Love: A family's testament of Vanity Fair - Bertram Fletcher Robinsonanguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=It is huge: not only in space but Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in time and structure; occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in the non-material sphere ''The Diary of the complex interplay of meanings, symbols and significances. MillerAnn Frank'' but then realised that her own family's book, intentionally combining cultural stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and political historyseven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, art criticism but only five thousand survived and travel writingMartin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. 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, manages that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to reflect escalate in the way that hugeness without weighting it did, but initial protests melted away as the reader down with too much austere detailorganisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861979088</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Mullen and James Munson1908745819|title=The Smell of the ContinentSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=When Frances Trollope landed Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at Calais in the 1830stheir word, she overheard a conversation between two travellersor not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the younger commenting on the dreadful smellbook. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, the older and more experienced telling him rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering ''the smell an older, less tethered sense ofherself.'' 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 continent''poetic 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 fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230741908</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer Worth0857058320|title=Farewell To The East EndLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyHistory|summary=I am interested in social history and, as a mother, ''Lord Of All the job of midwives fascinates me. Combining these two subjects, Dead''Farewell is a journey to uncover the East Endauthor's lost ancestor' s life and death. Cercas is a riveting readsearching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. The author Jennifer Worth was a midwife and nurseManuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, working with is the figure who looms large over the nuns book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at Nonnatus House in the East End centre of London and this volume (her third book on this topic) covers is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the 1950swrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297844652</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Williams0008294011|title=Becoming Queen|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=It's How to Lose a story which has been told by many authors during the last century. Country: The Victorian age, or at any rate the woman who gave her name to the era, came about largely if not wholly because of a crisis of sorts among King George III's family. By the time his seven surviving sons reached middle age, they had managed to produce one legitimate child between them, namely Princess Charlotte. Her unexpected death, and the need for at least some if not all of the others to do their dynastic duty and produce an heir or two, resulted in an undignified mass scramble 7 Steps from Democracy to the altar. Edward, Duke of Kent won the lottery. It was he and his wife, a widow with two small children by her first marriage, whose daughter Victoria became the saviour of the royal succession.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099451824</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDictatorship|author=Martyn Downer|title=The Queen's KnightEce Temelkuran
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=The title sounds more indicative of A little while ago a novel friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what in years to come would be discussed by [[:Category:Dorothy Dunnett|Dorothy Dunnett]] or Jean Plaidy than a biography. Then a brief prologue starts the story at the very end, A level history students when Queen Victoria receives faced with the unexpected news of question ''Discuss the death of Sir Howard Elphinstonefactors which led to... '' An equally short first chapter gives us I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it was a glimpse of the man some thirty years earlier in the thick of battle at the Crimeagood or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. Only after I think now that I do we 'reach' his birth in 1829know. Sometimes rules We are meant to be broken, in danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a good way flawed system I can't think of introducing this very interesting life. As a better one, particularly as the husband of his subject'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's great-great-granddaughter, the author is well qualified to write itteeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>055215508X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth Maier, Jamie Bulloch (Translator) and Jan Erik Vold (Editor)1788037812|title=Ruth Maier's DiaryThe Fraternity of the Estranged: A Young Girl's Life Under Nazism|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I was looking forward to reading Ruth Maier's Diary as I am interested The Fight for Homosexual Rights in the history surrounding World War Two and its victims and survivors. I am especially fascinated by social history and how the lives of ordinary people were affected by events beyond therir control. Ruth was born in 1920 and died on arrival in Auschwitz in 1942England, aged only twenty1891-two. She was born in Austria and lived there with her parents and sister, Judith. But in 1939, life there was becoming much harder for Jews, so Judith was sent to England and Ruth to Norway, where she lived with the Strom family in Lillestrom.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846552141</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1908|author=Katherine Ashenburg|title=Clean: An Unsanitised History of WashingBrian Anderson
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=Although maybe not Originally passed in 1885, the first book you'd be drawn to – a history of personal hygiene perhaps doesn't seem law that appealing – but if you had overlooked made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this excellent booktime, you would have missed out restrictions on an enjoyable same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and informative book1908, full three books on the nature of fascinating facts homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and a jolly good readJohn Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Attitudes towards Exploring the margins of society and rituals of cleanliness have certainly changed over studying homosexuality was common on the last two thousand years and this book chronicles many of themEuropean Continent, largely but barely talked about in Europe and the US. Cultural differences with regard UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to cleanliness and body odour (and yesthe scientific understanding of homosexuality, Napoleon and Josephine do get a mention here, although it transpires that they both took daily baths) are discussed at length, from beginning the Greeks struggle for recognition and Romans equality, leading to the present daymilestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681014</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Hatzfeld1910593508|title=The Strategy Of Antelopes: Rwanda After the GenocideApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=In rural Germany, This incredible graphic novel is a long long time ago… A woman passes through love letter to the village, handing out good cheer Moon landings and cakes. One family dismiss the foodpassion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and even their dog Mike Collins. This is seen to avoid it. She visits a second family, story we know well and urges Annabecause of this, the authors take a young new mother, still convalescing as is few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the norm, only downside to try one of the cakesbook. Anna does. But the friends by her bedside seem to think this might not be If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a good idea. They may film you will be correct, as before familiar with the night slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is out she is deada graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393065510</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Doris Kearns Goodwin1786331047|title=Team of Rivals|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=This hefty tome, The Race to Save the cover tells us, is 'the book that inspired Barack Obama'. For what it's worth, Obama's name appears no less than nine times on Romanovs: The Truth Behind the cover and spine, while LincolnSecret Plans to Rescue Russia's appears only six, and that of the author a mere two.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043725</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewImperial Family|author=James J O'Donnell|title=The Ruin of the Roman EmpireHelen Rappaport|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=''The Decline basic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and Fall Alexandra, some of which were deliberately obscured at the Roman Empire'' is the traditional starting point time for those studying various reasons, have long since been established. For the demise last few months of Rome. Gibbon's masterwork suggests that the great empire collapsed their lives in large part due to violent invasions from barbarians such as Russia the Visigothsformer Tsar and Tsarina, Vandals their children and other non-Romans. In ''The Ruin of the Roman Empire'' classical scholar James J. O'Donnell, few remaining servants were held in line with much modern revisionist thinkingincreasingly squalid, turns this argument on it headhumiliating captivity. Rather than To prevent them from being a destructive influencerescued, in July 1918 the barbarian kings within the empire tried revolutionary regime had them all shot and bayoneted to retain death in circumstances which, once the good things about Roman rule. The real blame for the fall of Rome can news was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in fact be attributed to Emperor JustinianEurope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861979355</amazonuk>
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