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[[Category:History|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=How Britain Kept Calm and Carried On: Real-life stories from the Home Front1785633457|authortitle=Anton Rippon|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=My generation is now at saturation point with 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters and all the accompanying variations. So much so, I was surprised to learn from this book was that Charging Around: Exploring the now ubiquitous poster was never actually distributed. The poster had been planned as part Edges of a campaign to raise morale, but after they were printed, the government felt it would have been seen as patronising, given that Britons were doing exactly that without the government message to bolster them up.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178243190X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Tudor: The Family StoryEngland by Electric Car|author=Leanda de LisleClive Wilkinson
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
|summary=Initially I struggled to describe this book. It's not Clive Wilkinson has a guide book: maps are intended only to give you history of travelling by unconventional means with a rough preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of where exploring the towns, cities and villages are - even major rivers are edges of England in an electric car was not showntotally outrageous. There are no opening times of museums or other details which the visitor might need and whilst In fact, it's should be a tremendous help to the tourist there's a sense throughout the book of their being people who are best avoided if at all possible. November pleasant holiday for Clive and February seem to be the best months for your visit in many cases. The 101 places youhis wife, Joan, shouldn'll visit in the book are given no wider importance than the works of art within them. Finally I accepted that the subtitle of the book - ''A Private Grand Tour'' was the most appropriate.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524324</amazonuk>t it?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09BLBP3P8|title=Steaming to VictoryNeville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain's Railways Won the WarOpposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Michael WilliamsFrederic Seager
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Soon after Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the end popular imagination of the First early days of World WarII from 1939-40, the British railways entered what is generally regarded known as their golden age, with the heyday of the ‘Big Four’ companies, the LNER (London and North Eastern), LMS (London, Midlands and Scottish), GWR (Great Western) and Southern Railways. By 1939 they were beginning to lose their virtual monopoly of land-based transport to lorries, buses and coaches''Phoney War''. NeverthelessWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, as war became increasingly inevitablebreaking out, they played a vital part and Churchill coming in the preparation to keep save the country moving, keeping industry day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and the war effort suppliedyet, helping as Frederic Seager argues in the evacuation of Dunkirkthis book, or as their press office put it was of vital significance in a pamphlet of 1943, 'tackling how the biggest job in transport history'war played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557673</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The Boys In The Boat: An Epic Journey to the Heart of Hitler's Berlin3756228711|authortitle=Daniel James Brown|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=You see, Jesse Owens had it easy – all he had to do was run fast. Alright, he did have to face unknown hardship, heinous prejudice at home and abroad, and make sure he was fast enough to outdo the rest of his compatriots then the worldCDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 's best to win gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but others who wished to do the same had to do more. People such as those rowers in the coxed eights squad – people such as young Joe Rantz. He certainly had to face hardship, the prejudice borne by those in the moneyed east coast yacht clubs against an upstart from the NW USA, and when he got to compete he had to use so many more muscles, and operate at varying tempi, with the temperament of the weather and water against him, all in perfect synchronicity with seven other beefcakes. Despite rowing being the second greatest ticket at those Games, JoePhenomena's story is a lot less well known, and probably a lot more entertaining.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447210980</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Last Days of Detroit: Motor Cars, Motown and the Collapse of an Industrial Giant|author=Mark BinelliHans Bodmer
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=Moving back to his native Detroit, Mark Binelli tries to see where it all went wrong for a city which was once ''America's capitalist dream townThe history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.'' but has shrunk more significantly than anywhere else in the country over recent years. How did this happen, and what effect has it had on the residents there? Is the decline irreversible, or can those who want to bring about a changed and improved Detroit succeed?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553880</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreview|title=Books that Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human HistoryFrontpage|author=Andrew Taylor|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Oh the pleasure when, as a book reviewer, one can simply point to the title and say – 'yup, that'. Or, I suppose, as in the non-existent follow-up, Adverts That Changed the World, simply repeat the mantra 'it does exactly what it says on the tin'. This paperback edition of the six year old original, fresh with several typos they had time to iron out alongside putting in Seamus Heaney's departure, makes life even easier, given that subtitle. I'm sure the more bibliophilic are already sold, Jeremy Dronfield and there is little influence I can bear on things. I will, however, soldier on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782069429</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDavid Ziggy Greene|title=Letters to the Midwife: Correspondence with the author of ''Call the Midwife''|author=Jennifer WorthFritz and Kurt
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=[[:Category:Jennifer Worth|Jennifer Worth]]We start with the pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, author of doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the bestselling ''Call empty market place, helping the Midwife''neighbours, sadly passed away in May 2011 following being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and at a short illnessvocational school. Her books have gained a great deal of popularity in recent years with Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their mixture of warmth, sadness very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and humour based on her experiences working workmanlike as a midwife in light switch. But this is the time just before the East End Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and instead of Londonhaving a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. ''Letters to the MidwifeKristallnacht'' features some happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. These in their turn leave the treasured letters received by Worth from former work colleagues younger Kurt at home with his mother and fans sisters anxious to hear word of her books. The resulting book is a rich testament an evacuation to a life lived fully Britain or the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to a very special lady whose memories have managed each other, packed off on the same train to inspire Buchenwald and touch so manythe stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0297869086</amazonuk>024156574X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert A CaroJohn Henry Phillips|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of AscentSearch
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=The concept of people from overseas countries buying and owning old and long-established British industries and works of art is Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in the dirt looking to find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but not newalways confident what. Yet one Archaeology must be a fair bit harder when you set out to find some specific thing. This book is a case of the most unusual sales latter, as our author promises to locate the topic of this kind occurred in March 1968the titular search. It was And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a time of British economic crisis (where wide one, the target might not exist any more – oh, and it's underwater, when have we heard he cannot dive. Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the heroic old man's visit back to France, our author has promised to find the landing craft that before) and the ‘I’m Backing Britain’ campaigndelivered him to Normandy, and a time when the concept of heritage that he was unfashionable and the authorities seemed lucky to attach more value survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to modernity than erect a memorial to relics everyone else aboard, the vast majority of the Regency and the Victorian agewhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099565765</amazonuk>1472146182
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= B09F4CTKJR|title=Born in SiberiaFlights for Freedom|author=Tamara Astafieva, Michael Darlow and Debbie SlaterSteven Burgauer
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyHistorical Fiction|summary=I tend to shy away from reviewing book titles, but this time it seems appropriate – here itIt's a title that doesn't tell you the half later stages of World War I and the storyUnited States has just entered the conflict. As much as Tamara Astafieva was born in Siberia, and returned there several times, for many different reasons and with many very different outcomes, this Petrol Petronus is much more of a picture of young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the Soviet Union as we first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Britain think of it – Moscow, a bit of Saint PetersburgCanada, the first to be attached to the RAF and little else. That's not a fault – and again it's not half of the storyfirst to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. The story here is so complexBut before that can happen, so rich with detail and incident, and itself came about in such an unusual way, that any summary of Petrol has to master flying the book has its work cut out in defining its many qualitiesnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373343</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0578761718|title=Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!: A World without World War IThe Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Richard Ned LebowNancy Carver
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=On The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the first page City of this bookLondon from at least 1181, we are given a summary of events from August 2014when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, Queen Elizabeth is hosting a reception for Prince Harry and his bride, a niece of the German Kaiser at Balmoral, while original church was destroyed in the governor-general Great Fire of India is involved London in preparations for the next Commonwealth Games1666. This brief glimpse of It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a fantasy world is followed design by a swift resumé of Sir Christopher Wren soon after the twentieth centuryfire and then survived for centuries until World War II, as everything actually happened, and of changes in when it was again ruined by bombs during the world order wrought by both world warsBlitz. Chapter two tells of But that wasn't the assassination end of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo in June 1914its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the final catalyst which precipitated stones from the First World War.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1137278536</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Hundred Days|author=Nick Lloyd|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Nick Lloyd is a historianchurch's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. WellThere, actually he's a lecturer in ''Defence Studies'' at Kings the grounds of Westminster College London - based at , the Joint Services Command church was rebuilt and Staff College in Shrivenham, Wiltshiretoday serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670920061</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1784385166|title=Hanns and RudolfThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant A Material History of AuschwitzNazi Germany|author=Thomas HardingRoger Moorhouse
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=There have been so many books written on What is the subject first image that comes to mind when you think of Egyptology, it would be hard to imagine that anything new could be said on the matter. However, TV presenter and researcher Bob Brier, a self-confessed Egyptophile, has managed Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to approach the topic from a unique perspective by allowing us a glimpse concentration camp? None of his fascinating collection these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the Third Reich's fascist regime in all things Egyptianits iniquity. The collection is an eclectic mix of But some objects, including jewellery, private letters and images from Howard Carter, tobacco packaging, books, posters and tea-setsthat time may be less familiar to you. In Brier’s collectionthis short volume, his ornate Josiah Wedgwood Egyptian set sits proudly on Roger Moorhouse has attempted to illustrate the shelf next to Barbie period of the Nile and a cheap King Tut cologne bottle. As he puts it: 'we all know that something can be so bad that it’s good. The true collector has no shameThird Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1137278609</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Fred's WarLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|authortitle=Andrew DavidsonTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes|rating=34.5|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=''Fred's War'' is I never really followed the story events of the 1st Cameronians actions Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the 1st world war from 1914 -1915. The pictures themselves tell second half of their own storyteens has other priorities, you know. They show I certainly didn't know of the happy young weeks of protests and carefree faces become gaunt, lined hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and battle-worn as the war progresses, although there is still laughter at times. The simple warmth birth of a roaring fire brings such obvious pleasurethe Tank Man image, that in a way the joy itself is heart-breaking. Photos like this make one wonder however they ever coined the name I didn''The Great War''. This looks anything but great. It shows t know how the desolation of ploughed fields which should have area had long been planted to provide nourishmenta venue for political protest, instead yielding only a harvest of death and despair. 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 I didn't know more than a way words can not, but thankfully they show only spit about 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 woundspeople involved on either side. This book 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 practically flawless in giving a bad option. But it isngeneral browser't all doom and gloom. There are happier scenes as Fred is an officer and billeted comfortably at times. There is also s context for the delight whole season of a death narrowly missed and simple scenes of camaraderieprotests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780721811</amazonuk>1684056993
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0648684806|title=WinterClara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=Adam GopnikJohn Holliday
|rating=4
|genre=ReferenceBiography|summary=In this collection The path of five essays, each one offering a unique and fascinating perspective on Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the season time she was just three-years-old but because of wintersome childhood ailment, Adam Gopnik takes the reader on a captivating journeyshe wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, exploring historyshe remained with her grandparents, art who doted on her and societysaw that she received a good education, through ''Romantic Winter'', ''Radical Winter'', ''Recuperative Winter'', ''Recreational Winter'' both in and ''Remembering Winter''out of school. In each essay, Gopnik focuses on one or two central themes, whilst also touching on surrounding ideas She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. For example By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in Romantic Winter his central topics are art the mid-west of the United States and poetry, howeverlife was hard, issues such as changing societyClara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, technologyhad ten pregnancies, sex seven surviving children and culture are also explored, died in relation to these pivotal notionschildbirth not long after Clara arrived. He also includes two sections featuring collections of artwork to illustrate his viewpoints As the eldest girl, which add a charming, individual touch to this bookheavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780874472</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Mayo1783784350|title=The Assassination of JFK Minute by MinuteThis Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=President John F Kennedy had been warned about going It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to Dallas - he himself people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. referred January was going to it as 'nut country' - but, conscious be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of the upcoming 1964 presidential electionsBritish Isles with occasional forays abroad, he needed to bring some support from discovering and telling the city onside story of wool's history and that was why he how it had made and changed the First Lady found themselves in the motorcade which swept into Dealey Plaza on 22 November 1963landscape. There can be few people who are not aware of what happened next, but Jonathan Mayo has presented She'd grown up on a chronology of events over the next four days (sheep farm in Suffolk - ''four days, three murders, hundreds of storiesa free-range child on the farm''- and learned to spin, as the cover says) demonstrating the pressure under which the officials involved were working knit and weave from her mother and the dreadful impact of what happenedher mother's friend. This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721854</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David G Coleman1789017977|title=The Fourteenth DayRonnie and Hilda's Romance: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile CrisisTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=The commonly-held view Ronnie Williams was the son of history would Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have us believe that the Cuban Missile Crisis began been born in mid-October 1962 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and concluded on 28 October, with the world heaving he might well have shaved a collective sigh of relief and moving on to think of other thingsfew years off his age. The truth is, of course, rather different and For a while the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the crisis rumbled on for weeks 1929 Depression and months five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to come, occasionally almost bubbling a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to the boil again as Kennedy be well-turned-out and Krushchev fenced this would stay with each otherhim throughout his life. Historian David G Coleman has used He joined the secret White House recordings to take us into the Oval Office and listen to what really went onarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393346803</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1980891117|title=The War that Ended PeaceG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: How Europe abandoned peace for A year in the First World Warlife of George Engleheart|author=Margaret MacMillanJohn Webley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Art
|summary=George Engleheart was one of the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, with a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. He was also one of the most prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1789016304
|title=War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam
|author=Melanie Martin
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=One could argue 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 main title of war years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this book is slightly questionablecould be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Throughout Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the half-century or so before Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the outbreak of hostilities Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in 1914, Europe had rarely been free from conflictthe way that it did, with but initial protests melted away as the Franco-Prussian, Graeco-Turkish and Balkan wars for a startorganisers became more circumspect. Nevertheless, the majority It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of the continent was at peace with itself and most thousands of its neighbours during this periodindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668272X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vincent Bugliosi1908745819|title=ParklandSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''Parklandthis one has your name on it'' is . Mostly we take them at their word, or not just a book about history , but a rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the book . That''with'' s a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a historybook calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. Vincent Bugliosi published The blurb speaks of the author considering ''Reclaiming History: The Assassination an older, less tethered sense of President John Fherself. Kennedy'' in 2007 with much of the book being based on his preparation for Older. Less tethered. That's not a mock trial bad description of Lee Harvey Oswald which was shown on British televisionwhere I am. This book was an exhaustive look at what happened in Dallas and at subsequent events such as Add to that my love of the trial natural world, of Jack Ruby those aspects of the poetic and the conspiracy theories which have abounded in the intervening fifty yearslyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. ''Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John FIt was written for me. Kennedy'' was published in June 2008 and is - as the title suggests - restricted It would have found its way to what happened on 22 November 1963 and the following three daysme eventually. ''Parkland'' is the film tie-in version of that bookI am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393347338</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Jin-Nom Lee and Howard Webster0857058320|title=Canton Elegy: A Father's Letter of Sacrifice, Survival Lord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and LoveAnne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyHistory|summary=Stephen Jin-Nom Lee, known in ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his childhood as Ah Nom, was born early in the twentieth century great uncle's death in the village of Dai Waan in rural ChinaSpanish Civil War. His father died when he was young and he lived with his grandmotherManuel Mena, mother and 'Little UncleCercas'great uncle, is the figure who was only a matter of months older than Ah Nomlooms large over the book. TheyHe died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco'd become friends as they grew older, but when his Grandfather returned after a long absence in America there as a distinct rivalry between the twos forces. Then Grandfather revealed Cercas ruminates on why his reason uncle fought for returning home - he intended to take this dictator. The question at the boys to America centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be educated. It was a wonderful opportunity and Ah Nom left hero whilst having fought for the village and his mother not knowing when he would see either againwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780285736</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Max Adams0008294011|title=The King in the NorthHow to Lose a Country: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Born A little while ago a friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what 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 the teenager had to flee come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with his mother and siblings when his father Aelfrith was killed at the Battle of question ''Discuss the River Idlefactors which led to... '' Any noble wanting to beat his way I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it was a good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to the top would naturally kill Oswald's family and so an obscure upbringing in Ireland seemed the answer. However, Oswald grows strong and bides his time until he comes home and clears his own path, ruling Northumbria for 8 years until his own untimely demiseI think now that I do know. During those 8 years he united kingdoms, helped establish Christianity We are in danger of losing democracy and became the inspiration whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of writers a better one, particularly as disparate as St Bede and Tolkien. As Oswald became St Oswald he left behind the 'benevolent dictator' is as many legends rare as historical events and this book seeks to separate the man from the myth while explaining the time we call the Dark Ages in the brutally separated lands that we now call Great Britain and Irelandhen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781854181</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788037812|title=Empress Dowager CixiThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Jung ChangBrian Anderson
|rating=5
|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=It’s easy to see why Jung Chang selected Cixi as Originally passed in 1885, the focal point law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for her study of China’s tumultuous modern history82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Cixi is a truly fascinating womanBetween 1891 and 1908, one of few human beings whose existence can be honestly said to have shaped three books on the course nature of historyhomosexuality appeared. Cixi’s biography is not only a fascinating read due to her own political machinationsThey were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, but also because of as well as the immense transformations that occurred in China during her lifetimeheterosexual Havelock Ellis. Jung Chang offers a detailed exploration Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the period from Cixi’s entrance to court European Continent, but barely talked about in 1852 to her death in 1908the UK, during which time so the ancient dynastic customs publications of China gave way these men were hugely significant – contributing to the advent scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the industrial agemilestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087436</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1910593508|title=The Explorer GeneApollo|author=Tom CheshireMatt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=''The Explorer Gene'' relates the remarkable story of three generations of the Piccard family, each of whom managed This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to push the boundaries of travel Moon landings and break new frontiers. The grandfather, Auguste Piccard was the first human to enter passion for the stratospheresubject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, using en experimental balloon Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of his own invention. His later workthis, designing submarines, enabled his son Jacques to become the first person to descend to the bottom of the infamous Mariana trench, setting authors take a world record for few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the deepest diveblanks. Grandson Bertrand became These shortcuts are the first person only downside to fly around the world in book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a balloon film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and now seeks to break new records by means of that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a solar-powered craft graphic novel that he intends to pilot all the way around the earthcould easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780720890</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold1786331047|title=Tudor Monastery FarmThe Race to Save the Romanovs: Life in rural England 500 years agoThe Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=Think The basic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, some of it as which were deliberately obscured at the time travel. Three professional historians for various reasons, have travelled back some five hundred years to put what they've learned into practicelong since been established. On a monastery farm they've experienced what it was really like For the last few months of their lives in rural Tudor England. It's a book to accompany Russia the BBC television series but it's still a rich former Tsar and Tsarina, their children and rewarding experience if - like me - you missed the showfew remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. There's a wealth of experience between To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the three authors revolutionary regime had them all shot and they write about what they each know best and it's bayoneted to death in circumstances which, once the news was confirmed beyond all supplemented by some sumptuous photographs of Bayleaf Farm doubt, horrified their relatives in west Sussex and the surrounding farmlandEurope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906920</amazonuk>
}}
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