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[[Category:New Reviews|History]]==History==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graeme Donald1785633457|title=When Charging Around: Exploring the Earth Was FlatEdges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=45|genre=HistoryTravel|summary=Mankind Clive Wilkinson has often had some quite ridiculous ideas. Once upon a time people deemed it sensible history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for doctors to go from an autopsy room to help give birth without washing hands in between – who'd have thought it might be beneficial? Those self-same medical scientists were within generations going to extol slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the virtues idea of cocaine and opium as harmless boosts to medicine, and in exploring the interim proudly induce enemas edges of tobacco smoke – the early version of colonic irrigation so beloved of some dodgy ex-Princess-type peopleEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. Outside the medical roomIn fact, there was once the notion that the Earth was flat – although not as might it should be popularly believed, a regular idea in Columbus's days, but certainly at times before then. The spread of man's idiocy where wrong, faulty pleasant holiday for Clive and dodgy science is concernedhis wife, and the history of all the false ideasJoan, is touched on in this fascinating volume.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843178680</amazonuk>shouldn't it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tim Pat CooganB09BLBP3P8|title=The Famine Plot: EnglandNeville Chamberlain's Role in Ireland's Greatest TragedyWar: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager

|summary=The great famine Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the popular imagination of Ireland in the 1840s was a major disaster and a tragedy. As a result, about a million early days of its citizens died World War II from starvation and a further million emigrated1939-40, with so many perishing en route that it was said known as the ''you can walk dry shod to America on their bodies.Phoney War'' The net total was about a quarter of the existing population. Yet as Irish historian Tim Pat Coogan argues in this accountWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, the famine was more than a tragedy. The title indicates a fierce polemicwar breaking out, and Churchill coming in to save the thrust of his book day. Very little time is that the British government of the day was not merely responsible for exacerbating the famine conditions through mismanagement spent on this period in cultural reflections and failure to respond adequately to the failure of the potato cropyet, but as Frederic Seager argues in fact deliberately engineered a food shortage in what this book, it was one of vital significance in how the earliest cases of ethnic cleansingwar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230109527</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John O'Connell3756228711|title=For the Love of LettersCDC: The Joy of Slow Communicationhappy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer|rating=4.5

|summary=With the advent of mobile phones and e-mail, is there still a place for good old-fashioned letter-writing in the world today? John O'Connell certainly thinks there is, and has written a compelling argument in this book which, if you haven't put pen to paper for some time, may be enough to remind you The history of the benefits development of slower correspondence in todayIT could fill books of several hundred pages.''s high-speed world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721099</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Roger Osborne|title=Of the People, By the People: A New History of Democracy|rating=4Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Most authors writing on the subject of democracy tend He has chosen to concentrate on political theory. Osborne approaches tell us about the subject from the historical angle insteadshort, but explosive, looking at different democracies from that history of Greece in the sixth century BCControl Data Company, to the present dayCDC, for whom he worked. 'HumanityIt's finest achievement'a fascinating tale, as Osborne calls it told in the first sentence a mixture of his prologue, comes from the Greek words ''demos'' (people) technological summary and ''kratos'' (rule). It had its origins in the system devised in ancient Athens, the earliest in the world which did not first operate through complex relations of kinship and deference, as had others up to then. Parallels would be seen in Rome a few centuries laterwry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950623</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Karen DolbyJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=Oranges Fritz and Lemons: Rhymes From Past TimesKurt|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=Karen Dolby's book is 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 synagogue choir and at a loving look vocational school. Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at nursery rhymes from many different times their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and places, handily organised into groups like 'Mondayworkmanlike as a light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's Child: The Rhythm will, and instead of Dayshaving a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. '' and Kristallnacht'Oranges and Lemons: Songs and Games'happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. In addition These in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the rhymes themselvesUS, Dolby sets them into context while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and tells the stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of the stories behind them.all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843179598</amazonuk>024156574X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Catherine BaileyJohn Henry Phillips|title=The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Like many an enthralling novel, this book starts with a death from natural causes yet in odd circumstances which initially leaves several questions unanswered. In fact, in spite of the subtitle, and also knowing nothing about the family whose story it tells in part, I had to look through the book thoroughly before reading, to satisfy myself that it actually was non-fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917559</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patricia Malcolmson and Robert Malcolmson (Editors)|title=The Diaries of Nella Last: Writing in War and Peace|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=This work brings together a selection of some of Nella Last's diary entries from the 1940's and 1950's. She wrote from her home in Barrow-in-Furness as part of the Mass Observation project, writing a huge amount of material, some of which has already been published as ''Nella Last's War'', [[Nella Last's Peace: The Post-war Diaries of Housewife 49 by Patricia Malcolmson (Editor), Robert Malcolmson (Editor)|Nella Last's Peace]] and [[Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49 by Patricia Malcolmson and Robert Malcolmson (Editors)|Nella Last in the 1950s]] This volume brings together the three previous collections, with new material too, taking the reader through the war years and on into post-war Britain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668546X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Wise|title=Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian EnglandSearch|rating=4.5

|summary=Many a family in Victorian England had a problem husband, wife, son or daughter whom they felt ought to Archaeology cannot be ‘locked away’. Only occasionally if ever was it for totally unselfish reasons connected with their mental health and well-being. More often than not it was to settle old scores, or so the family could get their hands on the victim’s fortune or business, or sometimes because, as the title of this book suggests, they were merely ‘inconvenient’.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847921124</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gavin Mortimer|title=A History of Football in 100 Objects|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=Given how long itchild's been played and how many books have been written about it, any new history of football needs to have some kind of hook to make it stand out. Gavin Mortimer may have found thatplay, by presenting his history as 'when you'A History of Football re scraping in 100 Objects''. This prompts the question as dirt looking to whether the whole of football could find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Archaeology must be reduced down a fair bit harder when you set out to find some specific thing. This book is a mere century case of objects. But thenthe latter, if [[From 0 as our author promises to Infinity in 26 Centuries by Chris Waring]] can make a history locate the topic of maths worth reading, I guess anything is possiblethe titular search.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250618</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Victoria Glendinning|title=Raffles And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the Golden Opportunity|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Although Raffles has gone down in history as the founder of Singapore his roots were far from grand. He had no advantages apart from his own drive and determination and his professional life began with search area is a lowly clerkship with wide one, the East india Companytarget might not exist any more – oh, then as large and ungainly as many a governmentit's underwater, when he cannot dive. When he went abroad Latching on behalf of the Company he quickly learned the merits of doing something and asking permission afterwards, not least because of the time taken to contact London and then receive a reply. Even if all went well this could take the best part of a year particular D- by which time Day veteran through helping the original question could well be academic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686032</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|heroic old man's visit back to France, our author=Max Decharne|title=Capital Crimes: Seven centuries of London life and murder|rating=4.5|genre=True Crime|summary=True crime has been one of promised to find the great growth areas of publishing in the last few yearslanding craft that delivered him to Normandy, and that he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. As more than one author in the field as observed, The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone loves a good murder in a manner of speakingelse aboard, and anybody who is looking for books on murders in London will find no lack the vast majority of choicewhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847945902</amazonuk>1472146182

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah HermanB09F4CTKJR|title=The Classic Guide to Famous Assassinations (Classic Guides)Flights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=If you ever wanted to know It's the details later stages of famous assassinations, this World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is almost certainly a young American who has signed up and joined the book you've been waiting for17 Aero Squadron. In an easy This company was the first US Aero Squadron to read style with lots of bullet points and box-outsbe trained in Canada, Sarah Herman talks us through history's most famous killings the first to be attached to the RAF and failed attemptsthe first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. Starting with Greek and Roman timesBut before that can happen, subsequent chapters move through religious and royal victims, revolutionaries, Russians and American politiciansPetrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780950144</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carola Hicks0578761718|title=Girl in a Green Gown: The Inspiring History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portraita Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver

|summary=The Arnolfini marriage portraitchurch of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the City of London from at least 1181, as when it is generally if perhaps inaccurately knownwas first mentioned in records. Sadly, painted the original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a design by Flemish artist Jan van Eyck, signed Sir Christopher Wren soon after the fire and dated 1434then survived for centuries until World War II, has long been one of when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that wasn't the most popular and enigmatic paintings end of its time. Of modest size, story: after a little less than three feet highphenomenal fundraising effort, it is one of the oldest surviving panel pictures stones from the church's walls were transported to be painted Fulton, Missouri. There, in oils rather than tempera. It is also regarded as the first work grounds of art which simultaneously celebrates both middle-class comfort Westminster College, the church was rebuilt and monogamous marriagetoday serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099526891</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy Borman1784385166|title=MatildaThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: Wife of the Conqueror, first Queen of England|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Writing the biography of any woman who lived as long ago as the eleventh century, even someone as illustrious as a Queen, is a pretty thankless task. There will always be huge gaps in the knowledge available. For example we do not know when Matilda was born, and likewise we do not have a precise date for her marriage, although we do know when she died. No lifelike images of her are known, though evidence suggests that she was quite short of stature. In a male-dominated society, there are approximate records A Material History of when her sons were born, but not her daughters. Even more confusingly perhaps, many of the stories passed down to us throughout history are quite probably false. It is hardly surprising that this appears to be the first full-length life of her yet to appear in English.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099549131</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNazi Germany|author=Robert Shepherd|title=Westminster: A biography, from earliest times to the presentRoger Moorhouse

|summary=There seems to be no shortage of ways in which the history of London can be told, and as befitting an experienced historical and political biographer, Shepherd has found another interesting variation on the theme. In this superbly detailed and exhaustively researched volume, he brings us the story of Westminster, What is the royal capital first image that became the birthplace comes to mind when you think of parliamentary government and the centre Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of a world power. Over 1500 years ago it was Thorney Island, a secluded area on the banks these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the ThamesThird Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. It then became a village, yet a very grand one comprising a spiritual centre, a royal ceremonial stage But some objects and later a political capital, encompassing buildings such as the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and 10 Downing Streetimages from that time may be less familiar to you. Against In this stage short volume, Roger Moorhouse has been enacted attempted to illustrate the history of a nation, period of the monarchs and politicians who for better and worse shaped the events Third Reich through one hundred of the last thousand yearsits material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0826423809</amazonuk> 

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ann WroeLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=Orpheus, The Song Of LifeTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes

|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=Orpheus is one I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the most memorable and recognisable figures second half of Greek mythologytheir teens has other priorities, you know. He was a legendary musician I certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and poet, whose song could charm all living things hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and indeed the very stones birth of the earth. He Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a dramatic life, including joining the Argonauts as they searched venue for the golden fleece. Most memorablypolitical protest, he travelled to Hades to rescue his dead wife Eurydice from and I didn't know more than a spit about the underworldpeople involved on either side. However, he was unable to obey Pluto’s command not to look at her. He couldn’t resist turning around, only to see her sucked back into This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the depths and death. This tale whole season of romantic tragedy and thwarted love has intrigued and delighted artists and writers through the centuries, and they have portrayed Orpheus and his life protests back in music, paintings, plays, poems, operas and films ever since1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845951689</amazonuk>1684056993

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Maloney0648684806|title=Bright Young ThingsClara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=According The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the summary I read USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn''Bright Young Things'' before choosing the book t allowed to readsail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, it 'takes who doted on her and saw that she received a sweeping look at good education, both in and out of school. She was the changing world of only child in the Jazz Age'household and her childhood was glorious. I was expecting it to be something of a narrative account By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the Roaring Twenties – in actual factUnited States and life was hard, it's set as Clara was to find out as a collection of trivia about when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the decadefamily. Similarly Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the 'first person accounts' mentioned eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on the inside front cover are limited to two or three sentence quotesClara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753540975</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neil Root1783784350|title=Frenzy!This Golden Fleece: How the tabloid press turned three evil serial killers into celebritiesA Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=45

|summary=It was forever thusDecember and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. Only last year, 2011, 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 ''News length and breadth of the World'' British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the story of wool''Sunday Mirror'' stop being the double-headed monster of tabloid journalism, s history and very little was different in the 1950s, beyond the inclusion of boobies, how it had made and changed the fact the landscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - 'Mirror'' was then just a free-range child on the farm''Sunday Pictorial''. Both formed a duopoly for those in their audience seeking all the salacious details of the scandals of the day- and learned to spin, knit and the crimes weave from her mother and criminals people would talk about over their breakfastsher mother's friend. Three men stood out This was in those days for the ways in which they achieved their notoriety, and this book is an account of their goings-on, and how the press reported the stories – at times paying large fortunes for the privilegeher blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557762</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert O Bucholz and Joseph P Ward1789017977|title=London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750|rating=4|genre=History|summary=It seems hard to visualise a time when London was just a city of no major importance, except as England’s capital. The main thrust of this book is only about halfway through the Tudor area did it really rise to global prominence Ronnie and come to dominate the economic, political, social and cultural life of the nation as it never had before – and arguably since. By 1750 it had also surpassed Amsterdam as Europe’s financial and banking hub, and become Hilda's Romance: Towards a cornucopia of culture' through its vibrant concert and theatre life, to say nothing of a thriving and relatively free press. Before long it would also become the home of the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts. Lest this testimonial seems too gilded, we are reminded at the same time that the city was one of palaces and slums, concert halls and gin joints, churches and brothels, possibility and fear. Good and evil were always side by side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521896525</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNew Life after World War II|author=Gordon Weiss|title=The CageWendy Williams

|summary=The history Ronnie Williams was the son of Ceylon, Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and latterly Sri Lanka has at its centre an undeniable contradictionEthel Wall. A nation which espoused and proclaimed peaceful Buddhism was caught in one of the bloodiest conflicts 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 the recent past, a conflict peppered with suicide bombings, mass killings, rapes, torture and imprisonment1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and more than he might well have shaved a hint of genocidefew years off his age. Gordon Weiss was intimately involved as For a journalist and as while the United Nations Spokesman family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in Sri Lanka for two years of the almost 40 years conflict, 1929 Depression and has produced five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a detailed account of the background very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and eventual denouement of this conflictwould stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954847X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frank McLynn1980891117|title=The Road Not TakenG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: How Britain narrowly missed a revolutionA year in the life of George Engleheart|author=John Webley

|genre=HistoryArt|summary=Since George Engleheart was one of the Norman conquest, there have been no successful invasions leading portrait miniaturists of Britain. Yet according to this bookGeorgian London, during that era with a career lasting from the country has come close 1770s to revolution on seven occasionsthe Regency era. These were He was also one of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381most prolific, painting nearly 5, Jack Cade's rebellion 000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of 1450, the Pilgrimage them being of Grace in 1536, the English Civil War in the 1640s, the Jacobite rising in 1745-6, the Chartist Movement King George III). Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the early Victorian era, and finally the General Strike names of 1926. In each caseof his clients, social turbulence threatened the status quo but went no furtherand subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book. Why and how did they ultimately fail?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224072935</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bernard Wasserstein1789016304|title=On the EveWar and Love: The Jews A family's testament of Europe before the Second World Waranguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin

|summary=The introduction Melanie Martin read about what happened to 'On the Eve' begins with the controversial statement, 'Nor is anti-Semitism, Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by itselfwhat she discovered, a satisfactory explanation of the Jewparticularly in 's predicament'. The author has written a history Diary of the post-war Jewry called the ''Vanishing DiasporaAnn Frank'' but this book examines the collective failure by the Jewish people before 1939 'to attain at least some control over the threatening vagaries of fatethen realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. It examines their failure to establish cohesive social links, political parties, hospitals, newspapers A hundred and schools. Jewish culture and religious practice weakened seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the very period when they advocated loyalty to the states where they were citizens; the USSRwar years, Poland, Germany but only five thousand survived and France. Their population too was Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in declinea country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Wasserstein, Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who is a master at pointing out intriguing and surprising detailthought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, explains that on the brink of annihilation, there were actually more Jews held Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in camps outside the Third Reich than within way that itdid, 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 thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681804</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nigel Saul1908745819|title=For Honour and Fame: Chivalry in England 1066-1500|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Chivalry, Saul tells us in the opening sentences of the preface, is associated first and foremost with the estate of knighthood and with fighting on horseback. In this book he aims to present an account of English aristocratic society in the Middle Ages, from the Norman conquest to the first years of the Tudor dynasty, which puts chivalry centre-stage.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951891</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSurfacing|author=Robert K Massie|title=Catherine the Great: Portrait of a WomanKathleen Jamie|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Already known for major biographies of Nicholas and Alexandra, and of Peter the Great, Massie has now written an equally full and absorbing life of the late eighteenth-century reigning Empress.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0679456724</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Eamon Duffy|title=Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition|rating=4

|summary=In the introduction to this Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at Cambridge Historytheir word, points or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that all too often historians have written about we didn't like the English Reformation from strongly polarised viewsbook. That's a rare experience. Taking two extreme examplesPeople who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, he cites one which states that the people of England, formerly happy medieval Catholicsrarely get it wrong. In this case, were forced by King Henry to abandon their religion, and England I was never merry again, alongside another which told why. The blurb speaks of the English being oppressed by corrupt churchmen until King Henry gave them the Protestant nation for which they longedauthor considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. On the following page, he suggests Add to that it had long been an axiom my love of historical writing that the success natural world, of the Reformation in England was an inevitable consequence those aspects of the dysfunction poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and unpopularity substance most of late medieval Catholicismall, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. Such remarks were evidently made by writers with an axe It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to grindhave it fall onto my path so quickly. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441181172</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Winter0857058320|title=Defeating Hitler: Whitehall's Top Secret Report on Why Hitler Lost Lord Of All the WarDead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=Just how and why did Hitler lose ''Lord Of All the Second World War? The message in [[Fatherland by Robert Harris]] Dead'' is that he spent too much effort killing Jews a journey to concentrate on anything elseuncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Remarkably, this look at more explicit reasons Cercas is searching for the end of meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Third Reich barely mentions the HolocaustSpanish Civil War. What we have is Manuel Mena, Cercas''Some Weaknesses in German Strategy and Organisation 1933-1945'' - a document drawn up by what would now have to be called Whitehall Mandarinsgreat uncle, written during a year of war and a year of peace, that itemises is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for those with enough security clearance just what HitlerFrancisco Franco's chain of command was, and what forces. Cercas ruminates on why his thinking was uncle fought for each theatre this dictator. The question at the centre of the War. It was never Top Secret, but was classified this book is whether it is possible for thirty years and has spent about as long waiting his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for this hardback versionthe wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441196358</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean-Paul Kauffmann0008294011|title=A Journey How to NowhereLose a Country: Among the Lands and History of CourlandThe 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=When A little while ago a friend asked me if I turn 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 factors which led to travel writing, ...'' I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it is was a healthy balance of good or bad thing that about places I have been we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to, and places I've not. But without sounding too big-headed it is seldom places I have never heard of in any context - especially those think now that I have passed through, what's moredo know. The 'nowhere' We are in focus here is Courland, which was more-or-less the coastal slither of the top danger of Latvia, losing democracy and was once an independent Duchy. In one fell swoop Kauffmann seems to become the only travel writer to have written whilst it's a book about the place, at least for many flawed system I can't think of a generationbetter one, and, itparticularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's pleasant to say, probably the best one could have hoped forteeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050362</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Penelope Hughes-Hallett1788037812|title=The Immortal DinnerFraternity of the Estranged: A famous evening of genius and laughter The Fight for Homosexual Rights in literary LondonEngland, 18171891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5

|summary=A book based around just one dinner sounds Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a little extraordinarycrime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the hostnature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, painter Benjamin Robert Haydon, was no ordinary artistas well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. He was a friend of many Exploring the margins of the major artistic society and literary figures of studying homosexuality was common on the dayEuropean Continent, but barely talked about in addition the UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to being an ambitious painter the scientific understanding of historical scenes. Sadly, his ambition was not matched by popularity or good fortunehomosexuality, and despite or perhaps parly because an exaggerated belief in his own abilitiesbeginning the struggle for recognition and equality, one and a half centuries after his death he is largely forgotten except for his suicide after years leading to the milestone legalisation of despair, and perhaps his diary as wellsame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009956372X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Martin1910593508|title=Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube Apollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating=4.5

|summary=Although he was born in YorkshireThis incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Andrew Martin has long been enthralled by the London UndergroundChris Baker and Mike Collins. His father worked on British RailThis is a story we know well and because of this, and Andrew himself therefore had free travel on the system as well as authors take a Privilege Pass which entitled him few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to free first-class train travel on the national rail networkbook. Having lived in London for twenty-five years, commuting to various newspaper offices in his employment as If you've ever read a journalist, comic book adaptation of a job which film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has included writing been trimmed. This is a regular magazine column, Tube Talk, he is well qualified to write this entertaining graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and enlightening social history of the world's most famous underground railwaystill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684773</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1786331047|title=All in a Don's Day|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Mary Beard's latest collection, 'All in a Don's Day', of her assembled blog pieces from 2009 until The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the end of 2011, covers similar concerns Secret Plans to her previous selection, [[ItRescue Russia's A Don's Life by Mary Beard|It's a Don's Life]]. Professor Beard is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge and became Classics Professor at there in 2004. She is also an expert in Roman laughter, an interest which she fully indulges in the pages of her TLS blog. In her latest collection she bemoans the parlous current state of both Education and the Academy, and makes witty observations on matters as various as television chefs, what and how to visit in Rome and the art and worth of completing references in an age when only positive things may be said about postgraduate job-seekers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685362</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewImperial Family|author=R I Moore|title=The War On Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval EuropeHelen Rappaport|rating=45

|summary=At The basic facts about the end deaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, some of which were deliberately obscured at the first millenniumtime for various reasons, Western Europe was a place which had barely ever encountered heresyhave long since been established. It took just a couple For the last few months of centuries for it to become a major problem their lives in Russia the eyes of church leadersformer Tsar and Tsarina, leading to the persecution of individuals their children and groupsfew remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. Was heresy such a fast-growing problem? In this volumeTo prevent them from being rescued, R I Moore provides a thoughtful analysis of in July 1918 the issues revolutionary regime had them all shot and makes a powerful case that many supposed heretics were merely victims of a paranoid church bayoneted to death in circumstances which created propaganda to justify so many deaths, once the news was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681960</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=John Julius Norwich|title=The Popes: A History|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Historian Move on to [[:Category:John Julius Norwich|John Julius NorwichNewest Home and Family Reviews]] (or Rt Hon/Viscount John Julius Norwich, to give him his full title) doesn't write the sort of history books one associates with school days. He doesn't do dry and dusty. In fact ''The Popes: A History'' isn't ''just'' a history book but a romp through the ages with some great trivia nuggets scattered throughout the informative gold.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099565870</amazonuk>}}