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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul MathieuEdward W Said|title=The Masters Representations of Manton: From Alec Taylor to George Toddthe Intellectual
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=Edward Said's 'Manton' is one Representations of those iconic names in horse racing: the yard on the edge Intellectual'' is less a strict theory of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire what intellectuals are and currently more a passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the home comfortable image of trainer Brian Meehanthe intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to other specialists. But Paul Mathieu isn't looking at what's happening todayInstead, or even in the recent past; he's looking back at insists on the men who made Manton a household name from when the yard was built in 1870 through to George Todd's death in 1974. The first master was Alec Taylor – generally known intellectual as 'Old Alec Taylor', who came to Manton from Fyfield with a string of classic winners to his name. Hepublic figure, his sonoften awkward, 'Young Alec'abrasive, Joe Lawson and George Todd were the great names in just over a century at the yardunpopular, who speaks truth to power even when it is inconvenient or risky.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955389402</amazonuk>1804272248
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Geert MakJacqueline Rose|title=An Island Women in Time: The Biography of a VillageDark Times
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=In the mid 1990s journalist and author Geert Mak returned to his native Friesland and took up residence in the village ''The world of Jorwert. His aim was to investigate the quiet revolution going on in unconscious is not the agrarian communities not just antagonist of Holland political life, but of its steadfast companion, the whole of Europe. hidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerMary McCarthy|title=Medieval Intrigue: Decoding Royal ConspiraciesMemories of a Catholic Girlhood
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryAutobiography|summary=Over the last few years Dr Mortimer has established himself Mary McCarthy describes herself as one of the foremost writers of British historical biography covering an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the 14th and early 15th centuries. However his previous books have been quite accessible past to piece together the general as well as the scholarly readerbroken mosaic of her life. This present volume is aimed more at She attributes her ''burning interest in the latter audiencepast'' to her orphanhood, assuming as it does a detailed knowledge of King Edward II and his successors. This is hinted at in his introductionshe lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in which he points out that 'history is the most conservative of all professions, and a radical historian is generally branded a maverick by the mainstream1918 flu epidemic.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065899</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daniel Swift|title=Bomber County|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Bomber County isThis memoir chronicles her early years, of course, Lincolnshire where squadrons of Beaufighters, Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Lancasters were huddled beginning with her orphanhood in hangars for combined raids against enemy targets in German occupied Europe. As the war progressed the targets escalatedMinneapolis, from attacks against the German FleetMinnesota, where she lived under the industrial complex harsh guardianship of the Ruhr her late father's Irish Catholic parents and later, with the aim of breaking enemy morale, the targets included the cities - including Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden her abusive Uncle Myers and CologneAunt Margaret. Night after nightLater, crews already warmly dressed in jerseys she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and thick woollen socks zipped themselves into flying suits and made their way towards the enemy coast. Conditions were cramped and the temperatures plummeted as they gained altitude flying by the light her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of the moon to their appointed destinationsupbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144175</amazonuk>1804271659
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Tarnas1785633457|title=The Passion of the Western MindCharging Around: Understanding Exploring the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World ViewEdges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryTravel|summary=With plaudits such as 'Ten years in the making' and Clive Wilkinson has a 'US Bestseller', this book has serious pedigree. It is history of travelling by unconventional means with a serious book in content alsopreference for slow travel. At its very heart is As he neared his eightieth birthday the link between idea of exploring the disciplines edges of philosophy, religion and scienceEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. Small sentenceIn fact, huge implications, I'm thinking right at the outset. Where to begin? Well, all the chapters are usefully sub-divided into bite-sized pieces. So, although this book may look daunting to some at first glance, the subject matter can it should be broken down very easily. Therefore, it starts with a section headed 'The Greek World View' pleasant holiday for Clive and as many might expecthis wife, covers SocratesJoan, Plato and Homer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595162X</amazonuk>shouldn't it?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan PhillipsB09BLBP3P8|title=Holy WarriorsNeville Chamberlain's War: A Modern History of the Crusades|rating=4|genre=History|summary=In this book, drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources including chroniclesHow Great Britain Opposed Hitler, songs, sermons, travel diaries and peace treaties, as well as the existing literature from earlier generations, Phillips explores in depth the contradictions and the diversity of holy war, of friendships and alliances between Christians and Muslims, the launches of crusades against Christians, and calls for jihads against Muslims. In doing so he has written what is not so much a general history, but had vividly brought to life a rich tapestry of figures and events, while devoting equal attention in his narrative to the Christian and Islamic point of view. This traces the crusading impulse from the conquest of Jerusalem in the First Crusade, launched by Pope Urban II in France in 1095, to today, and in the process helps us to understand the origins of some of the sensitivities which have led to many of the conflicts still raging in the world today.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595078X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1939-1940|author=Martin Davidson|title=The Perfect Nazi: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past and How Hitler Seduced a GenerationFrederic Seager
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Meet Martin DavidsonReceived wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. Now, when I start my reviews like that, normally it means he's One such is the main character, but he's not here. He's big in scrubbing from the world popular imagination of BBC History documentaries, and grew up in the UKearly days of World War II from 1939-40, half Scottish and half German, knowing that many of his older relatives lived through known as the Second World ''Phoney War''. Foremost among them was his German grandfatherWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, Bruno Langbehnwar breaking out, who would have been of fighting age - and Churchill coming in his 30s - during to save the Third Reichday. Nothing much was ever said about Bruno's own history during the warVery little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, except for many inflammatoryas Frederic Seager argues in this book, rising comments by Bruno himself. It took the old man to die for the truth to be admitted by Martin's mother - their forefather it was of vital significance in how the SSwar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670916161</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Darnton3756228711|title=CDC: The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Futurehappy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=Reading a book''The history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.'' Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has chosen to tell us about the short, whether for study or relaxationbut explosive, in history of the sitting room, in bedControl Data Company, on public transportCDC, or almost anywhere else, has been one of everybodyfor whom he worked. It's favourite activities for many a long yearfascinating tale, told in a mixture of technological summary and not just by visitors and contributors to this sitewry anecdote. (Therein lies a paradox, I hear you say). As Darnton points out in his introduction, the good old-fashioned book was not destroyed by newspapers (or magazines, for that matter), any more than television destroyed radio, or the internet made people abandon TV.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>158648902X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John KeeganJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=The American Civil WarFritz and Kurt
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=While before reading this book I considered myself to be vaguely familiar We start with the major facts about the American Civil War 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 fight to liberate empty market place, helping the slavesneighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the well-known battles, 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 towering figures such Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S Granta light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and Robert E Lee – I was keen instead of having a national vote to learn more about keep the war and get an Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as inGermany, as did all the round-depth view ups of it from a renowned historianJews. After finishing These in their turn leave the book, I certainly consider myself younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to be far better informed on Britain or the militaryUS, while Fritz and tacticalhis father are, side of thingsunknown initially to each other, but found it a little lacking in certain other areas such as packed off on the causes same train to Buchenwald and effectsthe stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0712616101</amazonuk>024156574X
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|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=The reappearance of 'Archaeology cannot be child'A Senselesss play, Squalid War'when you' re scraping in paperback will afford wider access 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 the balanced and detailed scholarship of Prof Norman Stonefind some specific thing. This book is a sad story case of the Palestinian Mandate retold through latter, as our author promises to locate the viewpoints topic of politicians and proponents; Arabthe titular search. And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, Jewishthe target might not exist any more – oh, British, Frenchand it's underwater, German and Americanwhen he cannot dive. It energetically conveys an understanding of Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the character of figures as disparate as David Ben Gurionheroic old man's visit back to France, Richard Crossmanour author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, Haj Amin and David Lloyd Georgethat he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. OrganisationsThe secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, conferences and sticking points are deftly expounded. It does not lose sight the overarching motives and machinations vast majority of International Politicswhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845950798</amazonuk>1472146182
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul AddisonB09F4CTKJR|title=No Turning Back: The Peacetime Revolutions of Post-War BritainFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=In It's the opening chapter Addison, a child later stages of World War I and the 1940s, starts by comparing United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the leaders of 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the peacetime administrations that did most first US Aero Squadron to change be trained in Canada, the face of Britain after 1945. The first, Clement Attlee, was a modest, unassuming, even uncharismatic personality, yet he still led a genuinely radical to be attached to the RAF and reforming government. As the second, his admirer Margaret Thatcher, would point out first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in her memoirs, not only did he achieve a great dealactive combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but he did so because of, or perhaps despite, being all substance and no showmajestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192192671</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Green0578761718|title=Murder in the High HimalayaThe Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=''The Hound church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the Baskervilles'' is one City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, the original church was destroyed in the most famous mystery novels Great Fire of all, and also one of the most famous English novels set London in Devon1666. This alone would probably give more or less enough material for an entire book on connections between It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the story fire and then survived for centuries until World War II, when it was again ruined by bombs during the location which inspired itBlitz. Yet But that wasn't the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the authors have found several more links between stones from the countychurch's walls were transported to Fulton, and Conan Doyle alongside those associated with himMissouri. The result has revealed much information of which even IThere, who have lived in the county nearly all my lifegrounds of Westminster College, the church was previously unawarerebuilt and today serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312861</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenny Diski1784385166|title=The SixtiesThird Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=In What is the last few years, there have been many books first image that comes to mind when you think of varying length about the 60s. Most Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of them these are comfortable images but they are relatively self-contained histories emblematic of the decadeThird Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and images from that time may be less familiar to you. In this short volume, often fairly liberal in adopting their signposts as Roger Moorhouse has attempted to when illustrate the era began and ended. (Blame Philip Larkin's famous poem for period of the confusion, I hear you say)Third Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680042</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charlotte MooreLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=HancoxTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=Hancox is I never really followed the large imposing house events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in rural Sussex where Charlotte Moore was brought upthe second half of their teens has other priorities, and where she still livesyou know. Although its origins are not fully documented, according to local records it I certainly existed by didn't know of the mid-15th century, its name probably derived weeks of protests and hunger strikes from that of John Handcocks, one of the early owners. In what is basically part family history students before the massacre and part biography the birth of the house itselfTank Man image, I didn't know how the author traces its story back to lawyer John Dountonarea had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the first owner about whom nothing substantial is known, who made extensive alterations to it in 1569people involved on either side. It then passed through the hands of several families until her ancestors acquired it This book is practically flawless in 1888. In 1900 one of them let it to the Church of England Temperance Society as giving a drying-out house general browser's context for 'inebriates', but the arrangement was terminated in 1907 and the family moved whole season of protests back in1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670915866</amazonuk>1684056993
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Woodsford0648684806|title=Dear Mr BigelowClara Colby: A Transatlantic FriendshipThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyBiography|summary=Meet Mister Bigelow. HeThe path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough life was probably determined when her family and friends emigrated to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and morethe USA. MeetAt the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, too, Frances Woodsfordshe wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. She's reaching middle-ageInstead, living she remained with her brother grandparents, who doted on her and mum saw that she received a good education, both in Bournemouth, and working for out of school. She was the only child in the local baths as organiser of events, office lackey household and moreher childhood was glorious. I suggest you do meet themBy contrast, although neither ever met her family had become pioneer farmers in the other. Despite this they kept up a brisk mid-west of the United States and lively conversation about all aspects of lifewas hard, from as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60sfamily. And as Clara would only know her mother for a result comes this bookfew months: she was married for fifteen years, of heavily edited highlightshad ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, which opens up a world of social history heavy burden would fall on Clara and entertaining diary-style commentWisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Ackroyd1783784350|title=VeniceThis Golden Fleece: Pure CityA Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=Among Peter AckroydIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she's recent works are 'biographies' of London d never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and of the river Thameseven her knitting did not soothe her mind. Now he gives similar treatment January was going to Venice, basically be a history but enlivened time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of the British Isles with his elegant, literary styleoccasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the story of wool's history and how it had made and what changed the landscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a previous reviewer has called his love of free-range child on the farm'psychogeographical investigation'- and learned to spin, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood.x|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099422565</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Benedict Gummer1789017977|title=The Scourging AngelRonnie and Hilda's Romance: The Black Death in the British IslesTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=The mid-fourteenth century Ronnie Williams was an unsettled time for Englandthe son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. It There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was an already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age which saw . For a while the first phases of family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the protracted Hundred Years’ War with France, 1929 Depression and the Scottish war of independence, which came five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to an end be well-turned-out and this would stay with the capture of King David IIhim throughout his life. As if these events were not enough, in 1346 there was He joined the first case of a man army at eighteen in Europe contracting an unknown disease that rapidly swept across the continent, claiming the lives of millions, and one medieval chronicler noted that 'the bodies looked like a macabre lasagne: corpses piled row upon row separated only by layers of dirt'1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548836</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1980891117|title=The ParthenonG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of George Engleheart|author=John Webley
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryArt|summary=Despite George Engleheart was one of the proliferation leading portrait miniaturists of populist historians in print and on televisionGeorgian London, Professor Mary Beard continues with a career lasting from the 1770s to be a voice apartthe Regency era. Her conversational style He was also one of writing belies the academic research at its heartmost prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). This Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is serious history written referred to as engagingly as a detective storyhis fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683491</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Beaumont1789016304|title=The Secret Life of Warand Love: Journeys Through Modern Conflict A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=As Barratt points out Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in the opening pagesoccupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, there are literally thousands particularly in ''The Diary of titles available about Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the sinking of city during the Titanicwar years, at 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. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the time Germans might reach the largestcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, most expensive and most luxurious ship ever built. His aim that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in this volume is to bridge the gap between another forensic examination of how way that it sankdid, and yet another re-run but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of what he calls the familiar stories thousands of heroism and tragedy from literature in the public domain to provide the human story behind the disasterindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091516</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stefan Klein1908745819|title=Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reinvented the WorldSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=As the author says in her introductionSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, the they tell you ''this one has your name on it'great silence' of the title was . Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that which followed we didn't like the book. That'incessant thunder' of the Great Wars a rare experience. There People who are three crucial dates in her narrativesensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, all specific days in three successive NovembersI was told why. The first was when blurb speaks of the guns fell silent in 1918author considering ''an older, the second was 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 first two-minute silence in memory natural world, of those aspects of the fallen one year laterpoetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and the third was when the Unknown Soldier was lowered into silence beneath the floor in Westminster Abbeysubstance most of all, about connection. Of course, another year this book had my name onit. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. These act as a framework around which she tells the story of the silence of grief which affected everyone in various ways during the first two years of peaceI am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719562562</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Griffiths0857058320|title=The Lotus QuestLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary='A source of hope for 'Lord Of All the Dead'' is a radiant future or…the greatest threat on journey to uncover the face of the earthauthor's lost ancestor's life and death. Whichever of these descriptions you would apply to Communism you will find Archie BrownCercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's detailed and largely objective study enlightening and engrossingdeath in the Spanish Civil War. On one levelManuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, this is a chronological description of how a political force grew to dominate a third of the worldfigure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's population then virtually disappeared within a period forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of less than this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a centuryhero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950674</amazonuk>
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{{newreview|author=John Welshman|title=Churchill's Children: The Evacuee Experience in Wartime Britain |rating=4Frontpage|genreisbn=History0008294011|summary=As a little girl I was fascinated by stories from the second world war. My Nan would tell me tales of her work doing welding, my mum's uncle had exciting adventure stories from his years in the RAF, and the book Carrie's War was one I returned to again and again. So I was intrigued by this title which looks at the stories of thirteen children and adults through World War Two, from the first wave of evacuations through to the end of the war.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199574413</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Catrine Clay|title=Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary='You have to learn to be hard men, How to accept sacrifice without ever succumbing'. Such did Hitler say at the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies in the 1930s. He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at a FA Cup final with Lose a broken neck, such is the lifetime of difference between the two references. But that lifetime, as packed and varied as it was, is in the pages of this ever-interesting and swiftly-devoured book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Skidmore|title=Death and the VirginCountry: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart |rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=When Elizabeth I ascended the throne in November 1558, everyone's dominant concern was the matter of her taking an appropriate husband and securing the succession. The man most likely to become her husband was Robert Dudley, whom she made her Master of the Horse and entrusted with considerable responsibility for her coronation festivities. The fact that he was already married to Amy Robsart did little to quell the speculation, especially since she was believed 7 Steps from Democracy to be dying of breast cancer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297846507</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDictatorship|author=R A Scotti|title=The Lost Mona LisaEce Temelkuran
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=One of A little while ago a friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what in years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question ''Discuss the few things I remember from those writersfactors which led to...'' courses and advice books – and I can hear from here you wished I remembered more of them – agreed that she was the merit in being aware of anniversaries, especially in your area of expertise, right and having the ability wasn't certain whether it was a good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to sell articles concerning historical events linked into centenaries, modern comparisons, and so on. Well, here is the book equivalent, I think now that I do know. We are in danger of losing democracy and although whilst it's early – ita flawed system I can's looking back on t think of a better one, particularly as the summer of 1911 – this stands 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as quality enough to deny any latecomers shelf roomhen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0553818309</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Greg Grandin1788037812|title=FordlandiaThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle CityFight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=In 1927Originally passed in 1885, the Ford Motor company bought law that had made homosexual relations a huge tract of land crime remained in Brazilplace for 82 years. But during this time, for restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the purpose nature of the company growing its own rubber for use in making its carshomosexuality appeared. They planted rubber trees were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and built a factory John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and housesstudying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, and a number so the publications of top managers from the company these men were posted hugely significant – contributing to Fordlandia to run the operation. Huge amounts scientific understanding of money were pumped into Fordlandiahomosexuality, and Ford made great claims beginning the struggle for their plans. Howeverrecognition and equality, leading to the project was a spectacular failure, and it lasted less than twenty yearsmilestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311478</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dominique Lapierre1910593508|title=A Rainbow in the Night Apollo|ratingauthor=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 Matt Fitch, Chris Baker 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 ShakespeareMike Collins
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=In This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the late 18th century, keen to impress passion for the Shakespeare-obsessed father who paid him little attentionsubject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, 19 year old William Henry Ireland forged Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a couple story we know well and because of Elizabethan documents this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to show himthe book. With the older man completely taken in, his child then pretended heIf you'd found ve ever read a trunk full comic book adaptation of lost artefacts belonging to the Bard – love letters to Anne Hathaway, a declaration of his Protestant faith, film you will be familiar with the manuscript of King Lear, slight feeling that there are scenes missing and even entirely new playsthat dialogue has been trimmed. Ireland fooled not only his father, but also many of the prominent Londoners of the time, including Robert Southey, James Boswell, This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and the future William IVstill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818310</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Krane1786331047|title=Dubai: The Story of the World's Fastest City|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=In 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 Race to make it a popular destination for tourists. With Save the addition of artificial islands, the world's tallest building, an indoor ski slope, and much more, it's now one of the world's foremost cities - but as headlines showed last year, the stellar growth may have been extremely costly, in terms of finances, environmental problems, and the quality of life for some of its inhabitants.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848870094</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances Stonor Saunders|title=Romanovs: The Woman Who Shot Mussolini|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Most British titled families of Truth Behind the 19th and 20th centuries have produced their fair share of rebels. Yet few came as close Secret Plans to changing the course of European history as the Honourable Violet Gibson, one of eight children of Baron Ashbourne, a Protestant Anglo-Irish peer and MP in DisraeliRescue Russia's government during the 1870s.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571239773</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewImperial Family|author=Josephine Wilkinson|title=The Early Loves of Anne BoleynHelen Rappaport|rating=3.5
|genre=History
|summary=Before her marriage to King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn had already been courted by three suitors, any The basic facts about the deaths of whom might have become her husband - Nicholas and possibly saved her from her eventual end on the scaffold. The first was her Irish cousin James ButlerAlexandra, later Earl some of Ormond, whom she was which were deliberately obscured at one the time intended to marry in order to settle a family dispute over the title and estates of for various reasons, have long since been established. For the Earldom last few months of Ormond. After their marriage negotiations came to an end lives in Russia the face of legal obstaclesformer Tsar and Tsarina, she became betrothed to Henry Percytheir children and few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, heir to the Duke of Northumberlandhumiliating captivity. With a little help To prevent them from the scheming Cardinal Wolseybeing rescued, in July 1918 the Duke, who revolutionary regime had little time for his sonthem all shot and bayoneted to death in circumstances which, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should be dismissed forthwith. Soon after this once the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there news was fierce competition from his sovereignconfirmed beyond all doubt, and her destiny was sealedhorrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>
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