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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=EgyptomaniaCharging Around: Our Three Thousand Year Obsession Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the Land idea of exploring the Pharaohsedges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B09BLBP3P8|title=Neville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Bob BrierFrederic Seager|rating=34.5

|summary=There have been so many books written on Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the popular imagination of the subject early days of EgyptologyWorld War II from 1939-40, it would be hard to imagine that anything new could be said on known as the matter''Phoney War''. HoweverWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, TV presenter and researcher Bob Brier, a self-confessed Egyptophile, has managed Churchill coming in to approach save the topic from a unique perspective by allowing us a glimpse of his fascinating collection of all things Egyptianday. The collection Very little time is an eclectic mix of objectsspent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, including jewelleryas Frederic Seager argues in this book, private letters from Howard Carter, tobacco packaging, books, posters and tea-sets. In Brier’s collection, his ornate Josiah Wedgwood Egyptian set sits proudly on the shelf next to Barbie it was of vital significance in how the Nile and a cheap King Tut cologne bottlewar played out. As he puts it: 'we all know that something can be so bad that it’s good. The true collector has no shame.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1137278609</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=3756228711|title=FredCDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena's War|author=Andrew DavidsonHans Bodmer|rating=3.54

|summary=''Fred's War'' is the story of the 1st Cameronians actions in the 1st world war from 1914 -1915. The pictures themselves tell their own story. They show the happy young and carefree faces become gaunt, lined and battle-worn as the war progresses, although there is still laughter at times. The simple warmth history of a roaring fire brings such obvious pleasure, that in a way the joy itself is heart-breaking. Photos like this make one wonder however they ever coined the name ''The Great War''. This looks anything but great. It shows the desolation development of ploughed fields which should have been planted to provide nourishment, instead yielding only a harvest IT could fill books of death and despairseveral hundred pages. It shows men wading in water nearly to their knees or scurrying like animals in the muck. The pictures show the true horror of trench warfare in a way words can not, but thankfully they show only the lulls between battles. There are no scenes of horror as men are blown to bits. I think the men of this time had too much respect to photograph comrades in the throes of death, or in agony with wounds. This is not the horror of the battlefield or the immediate aftermath, but instead of mind-numbing cold, hunger and filth - of living conditions so bleak death itself might not seem such a bad option. But it isn't all doom and gloom. There are happier scenes as Fred is an officer and billeted comfortably at times. There is also the delight of a death narrowly missed and simple scenes of camaraderie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721811</amazonuk>}}'

{{newreview|title=Winter|author=Adam Gopnik|rating=4|genre=Reference|summary=In this collection of five essays, each one offering a unique and fascinating perspective on Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has chosen to tell us about the season of wintershort, Adam Gopnik takes the reader on a captivating journeybut explosive, exploring historyof the Control Data Company, art and societyCDC, through for whom he worked. It''Romantic Winter'', ''Radical Winter'', ''Recuperative Winter'', ''Recreational Winter'' and ''Remembering Winter''. In each essay, Gopnik focuses on one or two central themes, whilst also touching on surrounding ideas. For examples a fascinating tale, told in Romantic Winter his central topics are art and poetry, however, issues such as changing society, technology, sex a mixture of technological summary and culture are also explored, in relation to these pivotal notions. He also includes two sections featuring collections of artwork to illustrate his viewpoints, which add a charming, individual touch to this bookwry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780874472</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan MayoJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=The Assassination of JFK Minute by MinuteFritz and Kurt

|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=President John F Kennedy had been warned about going We start with the pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to Dallas - he himself referred to it as 'nut country' - butdo – kicking things around the empty market place, conscious of helping the upcoming 1964 presidential electionsneighbours, he needed being dutiful when it comes to bring some support from the city onside and that was why he synagogue choir and at a vocational school. Kurt has to make sure the First Lady found themselves in lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the motorcade which swept into Dealey Plaza on 22 November 1963Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. There can be few people who are not aware But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and instead of what happened next, but Jonathan Mayo has presented having a chronology of events over national vote to keep the next four days (Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. ''four days, three murders, hundreds of storiesKristallnacht''happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. These in their turn leave the cover says) demonstrating younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the pressure under which US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the officials involved were working same train to Buchenwald and the dreadful impact stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of what happened..all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780721854</amazonuk>024156574X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David G ColemanJohn Henry Phillips|title=The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile CrisisSearch|rating=45

|summary=The commonly-held view of history would have us believe that Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in the Cuban Missile Crisis began in mid-October 1962 and concluded on 28 Octoberdirt looking to find what you can find, with the world heaving often knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Archaeology must be a fair bit harder when you set out to find some specific thing. This book is a collective sigh case of relief and moving on the latter, as our author promises to think locate the topic of other thingsthe titular search. The truth And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area isa wide one, of coursethe target might not exist any more – oh, rather different and it's underwater, when he cannot dive. Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the crisis rumbled on for weeks and months heroic old man's visit back to comeFrance, occasionally almost bubbling our author has promised to find the boil again as Kennedy landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, and Krushchev fenced with each otherthat he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. Historian David G Coleman has used the secret White House recordings The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to take us into everyone else aboard, the Oval Office and listen vast majority of whom perished. Who else would make such promises to what really went on.someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393346803</amazonuk>1472146182

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= B09F4CTKJR|title=The War that Ended Peace: How Europe abandoned peace Flights for the First World WarFreedom|author=Margaret MacMillanSteven Burgauer

|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=One could argue that It's the main title later stages of this book World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is slightly questionablea young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. Throughout the half-century or so before This company was the outbreak of hostilities first US Aero Squadron to be trained in 1914Canada, Europe had rarely been free from conflict, with the Franco-Prussian, Graeco-Turkish first to be attached to the RAF and Balkan wars for a startthe first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. NeverthelessBut before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the majority of the continent was at peace with itself and most of its neighbours during this periodnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668272X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vincent Bugliosi0578761718|title=ParklandThe Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver

|summary=''Parkland'' is not just a book about history but a book ''with'' a history. Vincent Bugliosi published ''Reclaiming History: The Assassination church of President John F. Kennedy'' St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in 2007 with much of the book being based on his preparation for a mock trial City of Lee Harvey Oswald which London from at least 1181, when it was shown on British televisionfirst mentioned in records. Sadly, This book the original church was an exhaustive look at what happened destroyed in Dallas and at subsequent events such as the trial Great Fire of Jack Ruby and the conspiracy theories which have abounded in the intervening fifty years. ''Four Days London in November: The Assassination of President John F1666. Kennedy'' It was published rebuilt in June 2008 and is - as Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the title suggests - restricted to what happened on 22 November 1963 fire and then survived for centuries until World War II, when it was again ruined by bombs during the following three daysBlitz. But that wasn't the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the church'Parkland'' is s walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. There, in the film tie-in version grounds of that bookWestminster College, the church was rebuilt and today serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393347338</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Jin-Nom Lee and Howard Webster1784385166|title=Canton ElegyThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Father's Letter Material History of Sacrifice, Survival and LoveNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyHistory|summary=Stephen Jin-Nom Lee, known in his childhood as Ah Nom, was born early in What is the twentieth century in first image that comes to mind when you think of the village Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of Dai Waan these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the Third Reich's fascist regime in rural Chinaall its iniquity. His father died when he was young But some objects and he lived with his grandmother, mother and 'Little Uncle', who was only a matter of months older than Ah Nomimages from that time may be less familiar to you. They'd become friends as they grew olderIn this short volume, but when his Grandfather returned after a long absence in America there as a distinct rivalry between the two. Then Grandfather revealed his reason for returning home - he intended Roger Moorhouse has attempted to take illustrate the boys to America to be educated. It was a wonderful opportunity and Ah Nom left period of the village and his mother not knowing when he would see either againThird Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780285736</amazonuk> 

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Max AdamsLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=The King in the NorthTiananmen 1989: The Life and Times of Oswald of NorthumbriaOur Shattered Hopes

|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=Born in 604 and around for only 38 years, Oswald didn't live that long but he packed a lot in. Born into Bernician royalty, Oswald I never really followed the teenager had to flee events of Tiananmen Square with his mother and siblings much attention when his father Aelfrith it was killed at playing out – someone in the Battle second half of the River Idletheir teens has other priorities, you know. Any noble wanting to beat his way to I certainly didn't know of the top would naturally kill Oswald's family weeks of protests and so an obscure upbringing in Ireland seemed hunger strikes from the students before the answer. However, Oswald grows strong massacre and bides his time until he comes home and clears his own paththe birth of the Tank Man image, ruling Northumbria I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for 8 years until his own untimely demise. During those 8 years he united kingdomspolitical protest, helped establish Christianity and became I didn't know more than a spit about the inspiration of writers as disparate as St Bede and Tolkienpeople involved on either side. As Oswald became St Oswald he left behind as many legends as historical events and this This book seeks to separate is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the man from the myth while explaining the time we call the Dark Ages whole season of protests back in the brutally separated lands that we now call Great Britain and Ireland1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781854181</amazonuk>1684056993

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0648684806|title=Empress Dowager CixiClara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=Jung ChangJohn Holliday|rating=54

|summary=It’s easy The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to see why Jung Chang selected Cixi as the focal point for her study USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of China’s tumultuous modern history. Cixi is a truly fascinating womansome childhood ailment, one of few human beings whose existence can be honestly said she wasn't allowed to have shaped the course of historysail with her parents and three brothers. Cixi’s biography is not only Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a fascinating read due to her own political machinationsgood education, but also because both in and out of school. She was the immense transformations that occurred only child in China during the household and her lifetimechildhood was glorious. Jung Chang offers a detailed exploration By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the period from Cixi’s entrance United States and life was hard, as Clara was to court in 1852 find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Clara would only know her death mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in 1908childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, during which time the ancient dynastic customs of China gave way to the advent of the industrial agea heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087436</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1783784350|title=The Explorer GeneThis Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Tom CheshireEsther Rutter|rating=45

|summary=''The Explorer Gene'' relates the remarkable story of three generations of the Piccard familyIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, each of whom managed writing to push the boundaries of travel people she'd never met and break new frontierspreparing spreadsheets. The grandfather, Auguste Piccard job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was the first human going to enter be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the stratosphere, using en experimental balloon length and breadth of his own invention. His later workthe British Isles with occasional forays abroad, designing submarines, enabled his son Jacques to become discovering and telling the first person to descend to the bottom story of wool's history and how it had made and changed the infamous Mariana trench, setting landscape. She'd grown up on a world record for the deepest dive. Grandson Bertrand became the first person to fly around the world sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a balloon free-range child on the farm'' - and now seeks learned to break new records by means of a solar-powered craft that he intends to pilot all the way around the earthspin, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780720890</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold1789017977|title=Tudor Monastery FarmRonnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life in rural England 500 years agoafter World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|summary=Think Ronnie Williams was the son of it Thomas Henry Williams (known as time travelHarry) and Ethel Wall. Three professional historians have travelled back There's some five hundred years doubt as to put what whether or not theywere ever married or even Harry've learned into practices birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. On For a monastery farm they've experienced what it while the family was really like quite well-to-do but disaster struck in rural Tudor Englandthe 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. It's a book One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to accompany the BBC television series but it's still a rich and rewarding experience if be well- like me turned- you missed the showout and this would stay with him throughout his life. There's a wealth of experience between He joined the three authors and they write about what they each know best and it's all supplemented by some sumptuous photographs of Bayleaf Farm army at eighteen in west Sussex and the surrounding farmland1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906920</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1980891117|title=High MindsG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: The Victorians and A year in the Birth life of Modern BritainGeorge Engleheart|author=Simon HefferJohn Webley

|genre=HistoryArt|summary=Between 1840 and 1880 British life and society underwent a gradual but major change. Young adults in George Engleheart was one of the latter year would have seen leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, with a very different country career lasting from that in which an earlier generation came the 1770s to maturitythe Regency era. The land in which povertyHe was also one of the most prolific, diseasepainting nearly 5, squalor and injustice were endemic, and in which 000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the Chartists had agitated for fairer rights for allnames of each of his clients, had been largely transformed by the modernising factors of social upheaval and industrial changesubsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946771</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Summers1789016304|title=Not In Your Lifetime: The Assassination of JFK|rating=4.5|genre=True Crime|summary=Originally published as ''The Kennedy Conspiracy'', Anthony Summers has massively revised the text, updated it with the latest evidence War and it's been republished as ''Not in Your LifetimeLove: The Assassination of JFK'' which refers to the statement made by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was asked if the truth about what happened would come out. He said that it would, but added the rider that ''it might not be in your lifetime''. Fifty years on most of the people directly involved are now dead, but the truth has not officially emerged. In fact, itA family's difficult to avoid the thought that the US government would prefer that it did not see the light testament of day. Further documents are due to be released in 2017, butanguish, endurance and devotion in the meantime Anthony Summer has examined what is available, investigated on his own behalf and given us this comprehensive book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755365429</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Great Britain's Great Waroccupied Amsterdam|author=Jeremy PaxmanMelanie Martin

|summary=Throughout Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the nineteenth century, Britain was regularly at war with one or more overseas nationyears, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be it France, Russia, South Africa or elsewhereallowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. These conflicts generally passed Most people believed that the public by, except for families occupation could never happen: even those who had loved ones serving overseas. When thought that the declaration of war against Germany was announced to Germans might reach the crowds in London in August 1914, it was assumed city were convinced that once again most people they would not soon be affectedpushed back, and that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it would probably be over by Christmasdid, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. This was proved wrong It's an atrocity on both counts. A weary conflict dragged on for four long years, and nobody in Britain escaped from the long shadow which it casta vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919616</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1908745819|title=The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Murder That Changed the WorldSurfacing|author=Greg King and Sue WoolmansKathleen Jamie

|summary=It was in the eighteenth century Sometimes when people suggest that an area of London consisting of about half you read a square milecertain book, from Soho and Leicester Square across Covent Garden’s Piazza they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to Drury Lanehearing a book calling your name, and down from Long Acre to the Strandrarely get it wrong. In this case, with Covent Garden at I was told why. The blurb speaks of the very centreauthor considering ''an older, became what has in modern times been recognised as the world’s first creative ‘bohemia’less tethered sense of herself. '' This was Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the cream natural world, of Britain’s significant artists, actors, poets, novelists, and dramatists those aspects of the age lived poetic and workedlyrical that are about style not form, side by side with the city’s chief market tradersand substance most of all, craftsmenabout connection. Of course, shopkeepers, rakes, pickpockets and prostitutesthis book had my name on it. One might say that all human life It was herewritten 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>1846146771</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=Inventing Lord Of All the Enemy: Essays on EverythingDead|author=Umberto EcoJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=Imagine ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a sumptuous Italian feast in journey to uncover the sunlit-bathed ancient countryside near Milan. Next to you a gentleman talks author's lost ancestor's life and eats with furious energydeath. He tells of Dante, Cicero, and St Augustine and quotes a multitude of obscure troubadours from Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Middle AgesSpanish Civil War. He repeats himselfManuel Mena, gestures flamboyantlyCercas' great uncle, nudges you sharply in is the figure who looms large over the ribs, belches and even breaks windbook. His conversation contains nuggets of information but in the flow of his discourse there is a fondness He died relatively young whilst fighting for iteration and reiterationFrancisco Franco's forces. He throws bones over his shoulder and when he reaches the cheese course - definitely too much information Cercas ruminates on the mouldy bacteria! When you finally get up things the elderly gentleman has said prompt your imagination. You are better informed, intrigued and prodded to examine why his discourse again and again, even if only to challenge what you have hearduncle fought for this dictator. Such are The question at the effects centre of reading Eco’s essays in ''Inventing this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the Enemy''wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553945</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008294011|title=How to Lose a Country: The Crooked Timber Of Humanity7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Isaiah BerlinEce Temelkuran

|summary=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 factors which led to...'The Crooked Timber of Humanity' I agreed that she was right and wasn' is t certain whether it was a collection of essays by philosopher Isaiah Berlin, born in Riga, good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to, later . I think now that I do know. We are in life, become an Oxford student danger of losing democracy and one of the institutionwhilst it's more notable alumnia flawed system I can't think of a better one, continuing to influence particularly as the university by, among other things, cofounding Wolfson College. Altogether, the collection presents Berlin's observations of Western thought. The history of morals in the West was of particular interest to Berlin, benevolent dictator' is as well rare as how these morals informed the more obvious changes in philosophy, literature, culture and much morehen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845952081</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=A Very British Murder: the Story of a National Obsession1788037812|author=Lucy Worsley|rating=4.5|genre=True Crime|summarytitle=The British are an illogical race. Short Fraternity of genocide, murder is the worstEstranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, most shocking crime an individual can commit, yet it has become a kind of commodity which over the last years has been endlessly packaged as a mass market entertainment industry. We buy newspapers and magazines with blow1891-by-blow accounts of dreadful true life cases, we read thrillers, watch TV drama series and documentaries, and we can take part in murder mystery evenings and weekends at pubs and hotels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906343</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=1912: The Year the World Discovered Antarctica1908|author=Chris TurneyBrian Anderson|rating=45

|summary=If you read those products designed to make you Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a published author, one way to start according to so many of them is to look ahead crime remained in place for a pertinent anniversary82 years. But during this time, research or know your subject wellrestrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and write John Addington Symonds, as well in advance as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and as popularly as you can studying homosexuality was common on whatever the subject is. Make no mistakeEuropean Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, however so the publications of these men were hugely significant – Chris Turney, even if he would appear to have followed that dictum contributing to the lastscientific understanding of homosexuality, is no chancer with and beginning the eye struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the temporary relevancemilestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845952103</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Mark White|title=Kennedy: A Cultural History of an American Icon|rating=4|genre=HistoryFrontpage|summaryisbn=During his lifetime John Fitzgerald Kennedy created an image of himself that dazzled and which has largely remained intact despite the steady leakage of information over the years which could have been expected to tarnish. It could be argued that - much as in the case of Elvis Presley and Princess Diana - death was an excellent career move, but Mark White examines the way the image was built up, then maintained and - after the assassination - burnished, reinforced and protected.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441161864</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1910593508|title=Armchair Nation: An intimate history of Britain in front of the TVApollo|author=Joe Moran|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=All of us have a love-hate affair with television, or ‘the idiot lantern’. Hardly anybody who has ever owned a set, or been part of a family which has had oneMatt Fitch, can envisage life without it. It has been a source of endless entertainment Chris Baker and escape from the drudge of everyday life, while at some time it has irritated most of us beyond measure. Love it or loathe it, it has always been part of the fabric of our existence. While to a certain extent it has been superseded by online services which have supplemented if not overtaken or usurped part of its role, its iconic status is unlikely to disappear for the foreseeable future.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683912</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Anti-Judaism: A History of a Way of Thinking|author=David NirenbergMike Collins|rating=4.5

|summary=Initially This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the choice of title seemed an odd one on account of Moon landings and the more widely used term, anti-Semitism. The distinction is quickly made though, that unlike passion for the lattersubject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, anti-Judaism does not need real Jews to flourish, but is fuelled by an idea alone. In fact this is a core tenet of Nirenberg’s thesis. Throughout history the idea of ‘Judaism’ is raised as an existential spectre in societies where there may be no Jewish members at allChris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a chilling reality, story we know well and Nirenberg charts the course because of how this came to be. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851131</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Victoria's Madmen: Revolution and Alienation|author=Clive Bloom|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Despite the revisionist work of a few writers and historians, our prevailing image of the Victorian age has generally been one of staid conformity, superiority and stuffiness, during which only authors take a few dissenters put their heads above narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the parapetblanks. Clive Bloom sums it up rather succinctly on These shortcuts are the only downside to the first page as a ‘monolith of steam and class conflict, antimacassars and aspidistras’book. A page later, he describes the nineteenth century – most of which was covered by the Victorian era – as one divided by three groups, namely those who represented the old Georgian decadence, the young Turks eager for reform, and finally If you've ever read a group who felt an allegiance to the world comic book adaptation of their forebears but were forced to exist in a world of confirming moralism and priggishness. The young Turks, he concludes, ultimately won.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230313825</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Inferno Decoded: The essential companion to film you will be familiar with the myths, mysteries slight feeling that there are scenes missing and locations of Dan Brown's Inferno|author=Michael Haag|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=Here be spoilersthat dialogue has been trimmed. Not so much in my review, but certainly in its subject, This is a very quickly produced companion guide to the latest [[:Category:Dan Brown|Dan Brown]] blockbuster. It's not so much a page-by-page guide, but certainly serves graphic novel that could easily have been three times as an educational long and intelligent look at the background to the biggest-selling book of 2013still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781251800</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786331047|title=The Black CountRace to Save the Romanovs: Glory, revolution, betrayal and The Truth Behind the real Count of Monte CristoSecret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Tom ReissHelen Rappaport

|summary=While The basic facts about the novels deaths of Alexandre DumasNicholas and Alexandra, like ''The Three Musketeers'' and ''The Count some of Monte Cristo''which were deliberately obscured at the time for various reasons, weren't true, they were based on a real hero - Dumas's own fatherhave long since been established. Born For the son last few months of a slave their lives in Russia the former Tsar and a French noblemanTsarina, General Alexandre Dumas would go on to rise to fame their children and fortune during the French Revolutionfew remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, only to face racism, betrayalhumiliating captivity. To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the revolutionary regime had them all shot and a rivalry with Napoleon Bonaparte bayoneted to death in circumstances which would eventually lead to , once the virtual disappearance from history of this incredible figurenews was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575132</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Tutankhamen's Curse: The Developing History of an Egyptian King|author=Joyce Tyldesley|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The striking cover of 'Tutankhamen’s Curse' certainly has a way of arresting the reader’s attention. The iconic golden funeral mask peers out from an ink-black background and those heavily-lined Egyptian eyes seem to stare eerily into the soul of the beholder.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861971664</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa|author=A T Williams|rating=5|genre=History|summary=Almost ten years ago on a Sunday morning back in September 2003, British Troops raided a hotel in Basra. It was a difficult period in the occupation, six months Move on from the U.S. led invasion. Temperatures were more than 50 degrees centigrade. Members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR) took ten suspects in for questioning from a hotel in the vicinity of insurgent weaponry. The Iraqis were hooded, plasticuffed, forced into stress positions and subjected to karate chops [[Newest Home and kidney punches by the British. Other men and officers watched, walked by or wondered at the stench that resulted from vicious punishment. After 36 hours of torture, a 26 year-old hotel receptionist lay dead by asphyxiation. His grossly disfigured body bore 93 individual injuries. There are now in the region of another 250 individuals, men and women, whose families are making legal claims to have been killed in further encounters with British patrols or prison guards.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575116</amazonuk>}}Family Reviews]]