[[Category:History|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|History]]
==History==
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bernhard SchlinkJacqueline Rose|title=Guilt About the PastWomen in Dark Times
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and SocietyBiography|summary=Consider, if you will, guilt. You might have it tainting you, as 'beyond the perpetrators, every person who stands in solidarity with them and maintains solidarity after the fact becomes entangled'. The link might not strictly be a legal one, but concern 'norms world of religion and morals, etiquette and custom as well as day-to-day communications and interactions'. Hence a collective guilt like no other - that witnessed in Germany. 'The assumption that membership to a people engenders solidarity the unconscious is something Germans not the antagonist of my generation do not easily like to accept'political life, we read. However difficult it might have been back then in but its daysteadfast companion, Germany had to physically renounce anything to do with Nazism, to actively 'opt-out' of connections to avoid the solidarity seen connecting the whole nation like a toxic spider web. And since then ithidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…'s linked in all the children, in a ''bequeathal'' of guilt.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905636776</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Sara Wheeler|title=The Magnetic North: Travels Women in the Arctic|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=The title Dark Times is Jacqueline Rose's homage to courageous women throughout history, particularly women of this book suggests another travel book about adventure in the frozen north21st, but Sara Wheeler mixes her tales of her own travels with some history of polar exploration and a serious examination of the impact of visitors and of those who wish to exploit the Arctic’s natural resources on the region 20th and its people19th centuries. Rather than setting off on another expedition to reach the North Pole, she travels around bits of the Arctic divided between different countries Her historical and governmentspolitical backdrop is, including Chukotka (Russia)thus, Alaska (USA)expansive, Canada, Greenland, Svalbard (Norway) yet she navigates it with intelligence and Lapland (Russia and Scandinavia). There an acknowledgment that feminism's lengthy mission is a huge amount testament to its successes, and not its failures: ''the ongoing force of material in the book but Wheeler organises and presents it in a very readable, accessible stylefeminism''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516888</amazonuk>1804271713
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ronald Skirth and Duncan BarrettMary McCarthy|title=The Reluctant Tommy: An Extraordinary Memoir Memories of the First World Wara Catholic Girlhood|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ronald Skirth was one of many young Englishmen of nineteen caught up in the First World War. He joined Mary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916, was promoted to Corporal, and sent past to piece together the western front. Like most of his contemporaries, when he went he was an unquestioning servant broken mosaic of King and country, fighting for what he believed was righther life. On She attributes her ''burning interest in the battlefields of Flanderspast'' to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, one day he came across who died in the body of Hans1918 flu epidemic. This memoir chronicles her early years, a German soldier the same agebeginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, if not younger. The dead man's hand was clutching a photograph of his girlfriendMinnesota, who could almost have been where she lived under the twin sister harsh guardianship of Ella, Skirthher late father's own sweetheartIrish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and Aunt Margaret. Like two of his friends who had just been killedLater, Hans had died as she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a result of the stupidity different kind of othersupbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>023074673X</amazonuk>1804271659
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Juliet Nicolson1785633457|title=The Great SilenceCharging Around: 1918-1920 Living in Exploring the Shadow Edges of the Great War England by Electric Car|rating=4|genre=History|summary=As the author says in her introduction, the 'great silence' of the title was that which followed the 'incessant thunder' of the Great War. There are three crucial dates in her narrative, all specific days in three successive Novembers. The first was when the guns fell silent in 1918, the second was that of the first two-minute silence in memory of the fallen one year later, and the third was when the Unknown Soldier was lowered into silence beneath the floor in Westminster Abbey, another year on. These act as a framework around which she tells the story of the silence of grief which affected everyone in various ways during the first two years of peace.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719562562</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Griffiths|title=The Lotus QuestClive Wilkinson|rating=45
|genre=Travel
|summary=Mark Griffiths is one Clive Wilkinson has a history of Britain's leading plant expertstravelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. I know this because As he neared his brief biog in eightieth birthday the front idea of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as it tells me that he is exploring the editor edges of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'the largest work on horticulture ever published'England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. His prior works list includes five other plant book creditsIn fact, three of them it should be a pleasant holiday for the RHS. I shall take all of this on trust, since attempts to find out more about the author Clive and his background through the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserably. He remains as elusive as the sacred flower that is the subject of this latest work: the lotus.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>wife, Joan, shouldn't it?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Archie BrownB09BLBP3P8|title=The Rise and Fall of CommunismNeville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary='A source Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the popular imagination of hope for a radiant future or…the greatest threat on the face early days of World War II from 1939-40, known as the earth''Phoney War''. Whichever of these descriptions you would apply We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in to Communism you will find Archie Brown's detailed and largely objective study enlightening save the day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and engrossing. On one levelyet, as Frederic Seager argues in this is a chronological description book, it was of vital significance in how a political force grew to dominate a third of the world's population then virtually disappeared within a period of less than a centurywar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950674</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Welshman3756228711|title=Churchill's ChildrenCDC: The Evacuee Experience in Wartime Britain happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=As a little girl I was fascinated by stories from the second world war. My Nan would tell me tales of her work doing welding, my mum's uncle had exciting adventure stories from his years in the RAF, and the book Carrie's War was one I returned to again and again. So I was intrigued by this title which looks at the stories The history of thirteen children and adults through World War Two, from the first wave development of evacuations through to the end IT could fill books of the warseveral hundred pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199574413</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Catrine Clay|title=Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend|rating=4Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that.5|genre=Biography|summary='You have He has chosen to learn to be hard mentell us about the short, to accept sacrifice without ever succumbing'. Such did Hitler say at the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies in the 1930s. He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at a FA Cup final with a broken neckbut explosive, such is the lifetime history of difference between the two referencesControl Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. But that lifetimeIt's a fascinating tale, as packed and varied as it was, is told in the pages a mixture of this ever-interesting technological summary and swiftly-devoured bookwry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris SkidmoreJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley Fritz and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart Kurt|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyConfident Readers|summary=When Elizabeth I ascended We start with the throne pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in November 15581930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbours, everyonebeing dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and at a vocational school. Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours's dominant concern was each Friday night – the matter of her taking an appropriate husband Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and securing the successionworkmanlike as a light switch. The man most likely But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to become her husband was Robert Dudleycave to Hitler's will, whom she made her Master and instead of having a national vote to keep the Horse and entrusted Nazis out, invite them in with considerable responsibility for her coronation festivitiesopen arms. ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. The fact that he was already married These in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to Amy Robsart did little hear word of an evacuation to quell Britain or the speculationUS, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, especially since she was believed packed off on the same train to be dying Buchenwald and the stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of breast cancer.all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0297846507</amazonuk>024156574X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=R A ScottiJohn Henry Phillips|title=The Lost Mona LisaSearch|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=One of Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in the few things I remember from those writers' courses and advice books – and I dirt looking to find what you can hear from here find, often knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Archaeology must be a fair bit harder when you wished I remembered more set out to find some specific thing. This book is a case of them – was the merit in being aware of anniversarieslatter, especially in your area as our author promises to locate the topic of expertise, and having the ability to sell articles concerning historical events linked into centenaries, modern comparisons, and so ontitular search. WellAnd he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, here is the book equivalenttarget might not exist any more – oh, and although it's early – itunderwater, when he cannot dive. Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the heroic old man's looking visit back on to France, our author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, and that he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, the summer vast majority of 1911 – this stands as quality enough whom perished. Who else would make such promises to deny any latecomers shelf room.someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0553818309</amazonuk>1472146182
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Greg GrandinB09F4CTKJR|title=Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle CityFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=In 1927, It's the Ford Motor company bought a huge tract later stages of land in Brazil, for World War I and the purpose of United States has just entered the company growing its own rubber for use in making its carsconflict. They planted rubber trees and built Petrol Petronus is a factory young American who has signed up and housesjoined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and a number of top managers from the company were posted first to Fordlandia be sent into the skies to run fight the operationGermans in active combat. Huge amounts of money were pumped into Fordlandia, and Ford made great claims for their plans. HoweverBut before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the project was a spectacular failure, and it lasted less than twenty yearsnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311478</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dominique Lapierre0578761718|title=A Rainbow in the Night The Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyHistory|summary=A book integrating otherwise piecemeal news stories picked up over The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, the original church was destroyed in the past forty years into Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a coherent explanation is always welcomedesign by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the fire and then survived for centuries until World War II, when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. This book explores South AfricaBut that wasn's history and developmentt the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the earliest Dutch arrivals church's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. There, in 1652 the grounds of Westminster College, the church was rebuilt and today serves as a memorial to the first racially integrated elections in 1994Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818477</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Doug Stewart1784385166|title=The Boy Who Would Be ShakespeareThird Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=In What is the late 18th century, keen first image that comes to impress mind when you think of the Shakespeare-obsessed father who paid him little attention, 19 year old William Henry Ireland forged a couple of Elizabethan documents Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to show him. With the older man completely taken in, his child then pretended he'd found a trunk full concentration camp? None of lost artefacts belonging to the Bard – love letters to Anne Hathaway, a declaration these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of his Protestant faith, the manuscript of King Lear, Third Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and even entirely new playsimages from that time may be less familiar to you. Ireland fooled not only his fatherIn this short volume, but also many Roger Moorhouse has attempted to illustrate the period of the prominent Londoners Third Reich through one hundred of the time, including Robert Southey, James Boswell, and the future William IVits material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818310</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim KraneLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=DubaiTiananmen 1989: The Story of the World's Fastest CityOur Shattered Hopes
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=In I never really followed the 1950's, Dubai contained just a few thousand inhabitants scraping a living. By 1985, events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it had grown, but Sheikh Mohammed was still laughed at when he said that he wanted to make it a popular destination for tourists. With playing out – someone in the addition second half of artificial islandstheir teens has other priorities, the world's tallest building, an indoor ski slope, and much more, ityou know. I certainly didn's now one t know of the world's foremost cities - but as headlines showed last year, the stellar growth may have been extremely costly, in terms weeks of finances, environmental problems, protests and hunger strikes from the quality of life for some of its inhabitants.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848870094</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances Stonor Saunders|title=The Woman Who Shot Mussolini|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Most British titled families of students before the 19th massacre and 20th centuries have produced their fair share of rebels. Yet few came as close to changing the course birth of European history as the Honourable Violet GibsonTank Man image, one of eight children of Baron AshbourneI didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more than a Protestant Anglo-Irish peer and MP spit about the people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in Disraeligiving a general browser's government during context for the 1870swhole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571239773</amazonuk>1684056993
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Josephine Wilkinson0648684806|title=Clara Colby: The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=Before her marriage to King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn had already been courted by three suitors, any of whom might have become her husband - and possibly saved her from her eventual end on the scaffold. The first was her Irish cousin James Butler, later Earl of Ormond, whom she was at one time intended to marry in order to settle a family dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. After their marriage negotiations came to an end in the face of legal obstacles, she became betrothed to Henry Percy, heir to the Duke of Northumberland. With a little help from the scheming Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke, who had little time for his son, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should be dismissed forthwith. Soon after this the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there was fierce competition from his sovereign, and her destiny was sealed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInternational Suffragist|author=Caroline Moorehead |title=Dancing to the Precipice : Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French RevolutionJohn Holliday
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=Two hundred years ago, with the fall of the monarchy and the Napoleonic wars, France underwent one cataclysmic change after another. There were many who witnessed and experienced the volatile age at first hand, but few left a more detailed record than the subject of this biography, Lucie-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pin.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099490528</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=John Van der Kiste
|title=William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious Revolution
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=At school I remember spending a lot The path of time on Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the Tudors and USA. At the early Stuarts – obviously great favourites time she was just three-years-old but because of the history teacher some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and then galloping unceremoniously through the intervening years until we reached another ''meaningful'' period – the Victorian erathree brothers. The importance Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of William school. She was the only child in the household and Mary her childhood was completely overlooked glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in favour of a quick mention the mid-west of the fact that William wasn't in direct line of succession United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the throne family. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and Mary had never wanted to marry him died in the first placechildbirth not long after Clara arrived. Their successorAs the eldest girl, Queen Anne I remember simply as 'tables'a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075094577X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Delgado1783784350|title=KamikazeThis Golden Fleece: HistoryA Journey Through Britain's Greatest Naval DisasterKnitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=When Mongol leaderIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, Khubilai Khan, achieved what his Grandfather Genghis had failed writing to do in conquering China, he inherited the worldpeople she's largest d never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and most sophisticated navyeven her knitting did not soothe her mind. However, in attempting January was going to utilise this to expand his empire further to Java, Vietnam be a time for making changes and mainly Japan, he lost she decided that she would travel the entire armada in a few short years. New marine archeological evidence from Japan, ironically with the site discovered in the 1990s in the construction length and breadth of new defences from the weatherBritish Isles with occasional forays abroad, has raised questions on discovering and telling the traditional view that the defeat story of the two Japanese invasion forces of 1274 wool's history and how it had made and particlularly 1281 were solely due to changed the intervention of the weather and what Japanese culture claim was landscape. She'd grown up on a Kamikaze (or sheep farm in Suffolk - ''divine winda free-range child on the farm'') summoned by the Gods- and learned to spin, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532581</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Baldwin1789017977|title=The KingmakerRonnie and Hilda's SistersRomance: Six Powerful Women in the Wars of the RosesTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Due to the small amount of surviving personal sources, any book which purports to be a biography of a 15-century subject is almost inevitably going to be more a 'life and times' than a life. In the case of women who were sisters but not sovereigns or consorts themselves, the lack of data will be even more acute.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750950765</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Paul Strathern
|title=The Artist, The Philosopher and The Warrior
|rating=3.5
|genre=History
|summary=The interaction between three very different, Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to say contrastinghave been born in 1863, personalities of but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while the Renaissance period sets family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the scene for what promises 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be an intriguing titlewell-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. In 1502 He joined the paths of Cesare Borgia, notorious son of the equally infamous Pope Alexander VI, Niccolò Machiavelli, the intellectual and diplomat, and Leonardo da Vinci, army at the time best known as a military engineer though remembered today primarily as a great artist, were destined to crosseighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951212</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Timothy W Ryback1980891117|title=Hitler's Private LibraryG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: The Books That Shaped His LifeA year in the life of George Engleheart|author=John Webley
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryArt|summary=As George Engleheart was one of the fictional schoolboy hero Nigel Molesworth might have saidleading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, 'any fule kno' that Adolf Hitler was notorious for burning bookswith a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. Nevertheless he He was also an avid collector and passionate reader, as around 1200 surviving volumes once in his possession now in the Rare Book Division one of the Library of Congress, and a smaller quantity in Brown Universitymost prolific, Rhode Islandpainting nearly 5, demonstrate. Among 000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them were world literature classics, such as 'Robinson Crusoe', 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', and 'Gulliver's Travels'being of King George III). He also owned an edition Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the collected works names of each of Shakespeare, in hand-tooled Moroccan leather with a gold-embossed eagle flanked by his initials on the spine. The Bardclients, he once said, was greatly superior and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to Goethe and Schilleras his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532174</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Druin Burch1789016304|title=Taking the MedicineWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In 1898, Burch points out that a new drug was developed and marketed for the treatment of tuberculosis by Bayer & Co. TB is such an ancient enemy of man that there is apparently evidence of an earlier strain to be found in Egyptian mummies. The German firm had discovered a chemical that seemed to work well, and patients and indeed their own staff, who were tested seemed to respond well - it was named Heroin - and its addictive effects were at first missed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951506</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Sian Rees
|title=Sweet Water and Bitter: The Ships That Stopped the Slave Trade
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=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 Act for 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 Abolition of city during the Slave Trade was passed in Britain in March 1807war years, but only five thousand survived and the last legal British slave ship left Africa seven months later. Other countries Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were slow resistant to follow suitGerman occupation. Everyone in Britain knew there Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be resistancepushed back, and when that the abolitionist Granville Sharpe purchased land in Sierra Leone Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to 'repatriate' freed slaves, Ottobah Cugoana, a former slave living escalate in Londonthe way that it did, asked if it was possible for but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a fountain to send forth both sweet water and bittervast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.' Could the slave trade, he wondered, be abolished from West Africa - when West Africa was its source?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951174</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Grimson1908745819|title=The Isle of Man: Portrait of a NationSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=To many of usSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, 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 Isle book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of Man is probably best known for the Tynwaldauthor considering ''an older, the annual TT motorcycle races, and as less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a holiday resortbad description of where I am. I must admit Add to that my knowledge love of it extended little further than the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical thatare about style not form, and therefore found substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book invaluablehad my name on it. In these 550 pages, profusely illustrated with photographs and maps, I imagine that few if any questions on the subject are left unansweredIt was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. John Grimson has lived there for nearly forty years, and as well as working with several of the island's local authorities, was active as a long-distance runner and cyclist until his early seventiesI am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709081030</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Thomas Asbridge0857058320|title=The Crusades: The War for Lord Of All the Holy LandDead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=The word 'Crusades' has been misappropriated Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and often used death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in various other contexts over the passing yearsSpanish Civil War. In their original meaning they were a series of holy wars during Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the medieval era between figure who looms large over the Christian and Muslim world, book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for dominion over the Holy Land between 1095 and 1291 as Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the defenders centre of western civilization formed expeditions travelling across this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the face of the known world from Europe, their sole aim being to conquer and defend an isolated swathe of territory centred on Jerusalemwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743268601</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste0008294011|title=Sons, Servants and StatesmenHow to Lose a Country: The Men in Queen Victoria's Life|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Like the first Elizabeth more books than are strictly necessary have been written about Queen Victoria, but John Van der Kiste has taken the unusual step of using the men in her life 7 Steps from Democracy to illuminate some dark corners which might other wise have remained unexplored. Of course the most famous man in her life, husband and Prince Consort Albert isn't 'son, servant or statesman' as promised by the title of the book, but he established a trend. Victoria, often regarded as a difficult woman to please, would always have a man in her life who would, to a greater or lesser extent, dominate her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750937882</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDictatorship|author=Andrew Marr|title=The Making of Modern Britain: From Queen Victoria to V.E. DayEce Temelkuran
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=This book, and 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 BBC TV series which complements it, must confirm Andrew Marrquestion ''s status as one of Discuss the most entertaining and compulsive historian-cum-presenters working todayfactors which led to... '' His previous project, on postwar Britain, I agreed that she was hard to fault, right and anyone who enjoyed wasn't certain whether it was a good or bad thing that will certainly relish we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. We are in danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230709427</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick Casey and Richard I Hale1788037812|title=For CollegeThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, Club & Country 1891- A History of Clifton Rugby Football Club1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=Clifton Rugby Football Club can proudly trace its history back to Originally passed in 1885, the very emergence of law that had made homosexual relations a crime 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 sport nature of rugby unionhomosexuality appeared. Founded in September 1872They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the same year that William Webb heterosexual Havelock Ellis, who is reputed to have been . Exploring the rebellious Rugby schoolboy who first ran with margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the ballEuropean Continent, died. In realitybut barely talked about in the UK, it is highly likely that so the Webb Ellis story is something publications of a spin job on behalf these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of Rugby Schoolhomosexuality, although it did mean that Rugby School was able and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to impose its rules on the game at a time when most public schools had their own rules for playing versions milestone legalisation of the gamesame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312756</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Gay1910593508|title=Modernism: The Lure of Heresy - From Baudelaire to Beckett and BeyondApollo|rating=4|genre=History|summaryauthor=It is impossible not to be impressed by the sheer scope of cultural historian Peter Gay's 2007 study of Modernism, newly released in this paperback edition. He notes in the introduction that it is not a 'comprehensive history' but rather 'a study of its rise, triumphs, and decline'. What is remarkable thoughMatt Fitch, is the attempt to include the whole gamut of artistic fields in this coherent study.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099441969</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Van der Kiste|title=Jonathan Wild: Conman Chris Baker and CutpurseMike Collins|rating=45
|genre=History
|summary=Born towards This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the end of Moon landings and the seventeenth century Jonathan Wild was to become passion for the eighteenth century's most famous criminalsubject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of this, plying his trade in the authors take a rather curious fashion. He was born few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in Wolverhampton of parents described as ''mean but honest''the blanks. It seems likely that he first travelled These shortcuts are the only downside to London as the servant book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a lawyer where he was eventually to settle, leaving his wife film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and child to fend for themselvesthat dialogue has been trimmed. It was whilst serving This is a term of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter graphic novel that he mixed with the cream of London's criminal underclass could easily have been three times as long and learned the rudiments of his tradestill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848682190</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Greer1786331047|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, The Race to Save the focus of Romanovs: The Truth Behind the book seems a little difficult Secret Plans to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the PresidentRescue Russia's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewImperial Family|author=Ian Mortimer|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryHelen Rappaport
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=The medievalbasic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, in fact some of which were deliberately obscured at the time-honouredfor various reasons, view have long since been established. For the last few months of King Henry V as one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespearetheir lives in Russia the former Tsar and Tsarina, their children and few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the revolutionary regime had them all shot and again more recently bayoneted to some extent by Olivier's portrayal death in film. At least one historian has called him ''circumstances which, once the greatest man that ever ruled England''news was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>
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{{newreview|author=Toby Lester|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where it is now Move on permanent public display. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificate. It is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover more, and this book is the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jenifer Roberts|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to be born in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven M Gillon|title=The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The assassination of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment in my life and for more than forty years I've read most of what has been written about the event. It's been of variable quality, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publicly. I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidency.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stella Tillyard |title=A Royal Affair: George III and His Troublesome Siblings|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=King George III was not the luckiest of English sovereigns. America, and then his sons, in that order, gave him no end of grief, and the last few years of his life were clouded by madness. It is thus often overlooked that, before these troubles arose to haunt this most conscientious monarch, he also had a thankless task in trying to control his siblings.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099428563</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andy Beckett |title=When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies|rating=5|genre=History|summary=Having grown up during the era and followed the major news stories in the papers as they happened, I was fascinated to find everything (well, nearly everything) in the 500-page narrative that comprises this book. It was quite a rocky ride from the election of Edward Heath in June 1970 through the three-day week, record British inflation [[Newest Home and the IMF rescue, industrial disputes and picket battles at Saltley and Grunwick, the Gay Liberation Front and the stirrings of the green movement, the rise of Arthur Scargill, and the discovery of North Sea oil. Then there was the survival of James Callaghan's minority administration despite the odds, and thanks largely to his adroit handling of the situation in keeping both Tony Benn and the Lib-Lab pact on board, followed by the winter of discontent, culminating in Thatcher at No 10.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057122136X</amazonuk>}}Family Reviews]]