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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert A CaroJacqueline Rose|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to PowerWomen in Dark Times|rating=54

|summary=Lyndon Baines Johnson was ''The world of the unconscious is not the antagonist of political life, but its steadfast companion, the 36th President hidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…'' Women in Dark Times is Jacqueline Rose's homage to courageous women throughout history, particularly women of the United States21st, preceded by John F Kennedy 20th and 19th centuries. Her historical and succeeded by Richard Nixonpolitical backdrop is, thus, expansive, yet she navigates it with both being remembered most for the way they left office. His five-year term in office was overshadowed at the start by the Kennedy assassination intelligence and increasingly blighted by the debacle which was Vietnaman acknowledgment that feminism's lengthy mission is a testament to its successes, but there was something about Johnson which always intrigued meand not its failures: how does a poor boy from Texas hill country without an exceptional (or even 'good') education become president the ongoing force of the United States? feminism'The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power' tells you all that you need to know.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00GSHTJZQ</amazonuk>1804271713

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary McCarthy|title=London Bridge in America: The Tall Story Memories of a Transatlantic Crossing|author=Travis ElboroughCatholic Girlhood

|genre=HistoryAutobiography|summary=The concept Mary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the past to piece together the broken mosaic of people from overseas countries buying and owning old and long-established British industries and works of art is not newher life. Yet one of She attributes her ''burning interest in the most unusual sales of this kind occurred past'' to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in March 1968the 1918 flu epidemic. It was a time This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the harsh guardianship of British economic crisis (where her late father's Irish Catholic parents and when have we heard that before) her abusive Uncle Myers and the ‘I’m Backing Britain’ campaignAunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a time when the concept of heritage was unfashionable and the authorities seemed to attach more value to modernity than to relics different kind of the Regency and the Victorian ageupbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099565765</amazonuk>1804271659

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Born in SiberiaCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Tamara Astafieva, Michael Darlow and Debbie SlaterClive Wilkinson|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyTravel|summary=I tend to shy away from reviewing book titles, but this time it seems appropriate – here it's Clive Wilkinson has a title that doesn't tell you the half history of the storytravelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. 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 is much more he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of a picture exploring the edges of the Soviet Union as we England in Britain think of it – Moscow, a bit of Saint Petersburg, and little else. That's an electric car was not a fault – and again it's not half of the storytotally outrageous. The story here is so complexIn fact, so rich with detail it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and incidenthis wife, and itself came about in such an unusual wayJoan, that any summary of the book has its work cut out in defining its many qualities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373343</amazonuk>shouldn't it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09BLBP3P8|title=Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!Neville Chamberlain's War: A World without World War IHow Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Richard Ned LebowFrederic Seager

|summary=On the first page of this book, we are given a summary of events from August 2014Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. Queen Elizabeth One such is hosting a reception for Prince Harry and his bride, a niece of the German Kaiser at Balmoral, while scrubbing from the governor-general popular imagination of India is involved in preparations for the next Commonwealth Games. This brief glimpse of a fantasy world is followed by a swift resumé early days of World War II from 1939-40, known as the twentieth century''Phoney War''. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, as everything actually happenedwar breaking out, and of changes Churchill coming in to save the world order wrought by both world warsday. Chapter two tells of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo yet, as Frederic Seager argues in June 1914this book, it was of vital significance in how the final catalyst which precipitated the First World Warwar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1137278536</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=3756228711|title=Hundred DaysCDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Nick LloydHans Bodmer

|summary=Nick Lloyd is a historian. Well, actually he's a lecturer in ''Defence StudiesThe history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.'' at Kings College London - based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Shrivenham, Wiltshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670920061</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has chosen to tell us about the Kommandant of Auschwitz|author=Thomas Harding|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=This dual biography concernsshort, as the title makes clearbut explosive, two men. One was from an inherently German, rich Jewish family – they had a powerboat so he could waterski on the lake at their country cottage – who fled the rise history of the Nazis early in the 1930s, and got away moderately lightlyControl Data Company, only losing properties and a large and successful medical career. The other was from an inherently German familyCDC, who signed up for First World War service before his age, but only really wanted to be a farmer and family man, yet who ended up running probably historywhom he worked. It's worst slaughterhouse. Both had a connection and a shared destiny that was largely unknown before this book was researchedfascinating tale, there's told in a chance that both mixture of them had the blood of one man technological summary and only one man directly on their hands from WWII service, and both of them – again, as the title makes clear – are given the dignity of the familiar, first name throughout this incredible bookwry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434022365</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=Egyptomania: Our Three Thousand Year Obsession with the Land of the PharaohsFrontpage|author=Bob Brier|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=There have been so many books written on the subject 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 to approach the topic from a unique perspective by allowing us a glimpse of his fascinating collection of all things Egyptian. The collection is an eclectic mix of objects, including jewellery, 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 of the Nile Jeremy Dronfield 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 shame.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1137278609</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDavid Ziggy Greene|title=Fred's War|author=Andrew Davidson|rating=3.5|genre=History|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 Fritz and carefree faces become gaunt, lined and battle-worn as the war progresses, although there is still laughter at times. The simple warmth 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 of ploughed fields which should have been planted to provide nourishment, 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 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 GopnikKurt

|genre=ReferenceConfident Readers|summary=In this collection We start with the pair of five essaysbrothers Fritz and Kurt, each one offering a unique and fascinating perspective on their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the season of winterempty market place, Adam Gopnik takes helping the reader on a captivating journeyneighbours, exploring history, art being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and society, through ''Romantic Winterat a vocational school. Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours'each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, ''Radical Winter''and instead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. ''Recuperative WinterKristallnacht''happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, ''Recreational Winter'' and ''Remembering Winter''as did all the round-ups of Jews. In each essay, Gopnik focuses on one or two central themes, whilst also touching on surrounding ideas. For example, These in Romantic Winter their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his central topics are art mother and poetrysisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the US, however, issues such as changing society, technology, sex while Fritz and culture his father are also explored, in relation unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to these pivotal notionsBuchenwald and the stone quarry there. He also includes two sections featuring collections And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of artwork to illustrate his viewpoints, which add a charming, individual touch to all this book.could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780874472</amazonuk>024156574X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan MayoJohn Henry Phillips|title=The Assassination of JFK Minute by MinuteSearch|rating=45

|summary=President John F Kennedy had been warned about going to Dallas - he himself referred to it as Archaeology cannot be child'nut countrys play, when you' - re scraping in the dirt looking to find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but, conscious not always confident what. Archaeology must be a fair bit harder when you set out to find some specific thing. This book is a case of the upcoming 1964 presidential electionslatter, he needed as our author promises to bring some support from locate the topic of the city onside and that was why titular search. And he and really hasn't made it easy for himself – the First Lady found themselves in search area is a wide one, the motorcade which swept into Dealey Plaza on 22 November 1963. There can be few people who are target might not aware of what happened nextexist any more – oh, and it's underwater, but Jonathan Mayo has presented when he cannot dive. Latching on to a chronology of events over particular D-Day veteran through helping the next four days (heroic old man''four dayss visit back to France, three murdersour author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, hundreds of stories''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, as the cover says) demonstrating the pressure under which the officials involved were working and the dreadful impact vast majority of what happened.whom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780721854</amazonuk>1472146182

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David G ColemanB09F4CTKJR|title=The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile CrisisFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=The commonly-held view It's the later stages of history would have us believe that World War I and the Cuban Missile Crisis began in mid-October 1962 and concluded on 28 October, with United States has just entered the world heaving conflict. Petrol Petronus is a collective sigh of relief young American who has signed up and moving on joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to think of other things. The truth isbe trained in Canada, of course, rather different and the crisis rumbled on for weeks and months first to come, occasionally almost bubbling be attached to the boil again as Kennedy RAF and Krushchev fenced with each other. Historian David G Coleman has used the secret White House recordings first to take us be sent into the Oval Office and listen skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to what really went onmaster flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393346803</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0578761718|title=The War that Ended Peace: How Europe abandoned peace for the First World WarInspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Margaret MacMillanNancy Carver

|summary=One could argue that The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the main title City of this book is slightly questionableLondon from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, Throughout the half-century or so before original church was destroyed in the outbreak Great Fire of hostilities London in 1914, Europe had rarely been free 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from conflict, with a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the Franco-Prussian, Graeco-Turkish fire and Balkan wars then survived for centuries until World War II, when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that wasn't the end of its story: after a startphenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the church's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. NeverthelessThere, in the majority grounds of Westminster College, the continent church was at peace with itself rebuilt and most of its neighbours during this periodtoday serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668272X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vincent Bugliosi1784385166|title=ParklandThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse|rating=4.5

|summary=''Parkland'' What is not just a book about history but a book ''with'' a history. Vincent Bugliosi published ''Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy'' in 2007 with much the first image that comes to mind when you think of the book being based on his preparation for Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a mock trial concentration camp? None of Lee Harvey Oswald which was shown on British television. This book was an exhaustive look at what happened in Dallas and at subsequent events such as the trial these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of Jack Ruby and the conspiracy theories which have abounded in the intervening fifty years. 'Third Reich'Four Days s fascist regime in November: The Assassination of President John Fall its iniquity. Kennedy'' was published in June 2008 But some objects and is - as the title suggests - restricted images from that time may be less familiar to you. In this short volume, Roger Moorhouse has attempted to what happened on 22 November 1963 and illustrate the following three days. ''Parkland'' is period of the film tie-in version Third Reich through one hundred of that bookits material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393347338</amazonuk> 

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen Jin-Nom Lee Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Howard WebsterEdward Gauvin (translator)|title=Canton ElegyTiananmen 1989: A Father's Letter of Sacrifice, Survival and LoveOur Shattered Hopes

|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=Stephen Jin-Nom Lee, known in his childhood as Ah Nom, I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was born early in the twentieth century playing out – someone in the village second half of Dai Waan in rural Chinatheir teens has other priorities, you know. His father died when he was young I certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and he lived with his grandmother, mother hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and 'Little Uncle'the birth of the Tank Man image, who was only a matter of months older than Ah Nom. TheyI didn'd become friends as they grew older, but when his Grandfather returned after a t know how the area had long absence in America there as been a distinct rivalry between the two. Then Grandfather revealed his reason venue for returning home - he intended to take political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the boys to America to be educatedpeople involved on either side. It was This book is practically flawless in giving a wonderful opportunity and Ah Nom left general browser's context for the village and his mother not knowing when he would see either againwhole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780285736</amazonuk>1684056993

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Max Adams0648684806|title=The King in the NorthClara Colby: The Life and Times of Oswald of NorthumbriaInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Born in 604 and around for only 38 The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, Oswald didnshe wasn't live allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that long but he packed she received a lot good education, both inand out of school. Born into Bernician royalty, Oswald She was the only child in the teenager had to flee with his mother household and siblings when his father Aelfrith her childhood was killed at glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the Battle mid-west of the River Idle. Any noble wanting United States and life was hard, as Clara was to beat his way find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join 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 Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for 8 fifteen years until his own untimely demise. During those 8 years he united kingdoms, helped establish Christianity had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and became the inspiration of writers as disparate as St Bede and Tolkiendied in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As Oswald became St Oswald he left behind as many legends 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 eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and IrelandWisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781854181</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1783784350|title=Empress Dowager CixiThis Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Jung ChangEsther Rutter

|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 they've learned into practice. On a monastery farm whether or not they've experienced what it was really like in rural Tudor England. Itwere ever married or even Harry's a book birthdate: he claimed to accompany the BBC television series have been born in 1863, but it's still he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a rich and rewarding experience if - like me - you missed the showfew years off his age. There's For a wealth of experience between while the three authors and they write about what they each know best and it's all supplemented by some sumptuous photographs of Bayleaf Farm family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in west Sussex and the surrounding farmland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906920</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=High Minds: The Victorians 1929 Depression and the Birth of Modern Britain|author=Simon Heffer|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Between 1840 and 1880 British life and society underwent a gradual but major change. Young adults in the latter five-year would have seen -old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different country lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from that in which an earlier generation came his father was his need to maturitybe well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. The land in which poverty, disease, squalor and injustice were endemic, and He joined the army at eighteen in which the Chartists had agitated for fairer rights for all, had been largely transformed by the modernising factors of social upheaval and industrial change1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946771</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Summers1980891117|title=Not In Your LifetimeG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: The Assassination A year in the life of JFKGeorge Engleheart|author=John Webley

|genre=True CrimeArt|summary=Originally published as ''The Kennedy Conspiracy'', Anthony Summers has massively revised George Engleheart was one of the textleading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, updated it with a career lasting from the latest evidence and it's been republished as ''Not in Your Lifetime: The Assassination of JFK'' which refers 1770s to the statement made by Chief Justice Earl Warren who Regency era. He was asked if also one of the truth about what happened would come out. He said that it wouldmost prolific, painting nearly 5, but added the rider that ''it might not be in your lifetime''000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Fifty years on Throughout most of the people directly involved are now dead, but the truth has not officially emerged. In fact, it's difficult to avoid the thought that time he carefully recorded the US government would prefer that it did not see the light names of each of day. Further documents are due to be released in 2017his clients, but, in the meantime Anthony Summer has examined and subsequently transcribed them into what is available, investigated on referred to as his own behalf and given us this comprehensive fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755365429</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789016304|title=Great BritainWar and Love: A family's Great Wartestament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied 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|isbn=1788037812|title=A Very British MurderThe Fraternity of the Estranged: the Story of a National ObsessionThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Lucy WorsleyBrian Anderson|rating=4.5|genre=True CrimeHistory|summary=The British are an illogical raceOriginally passed in 1885, the 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. Short Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of genocidehomosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, murder is as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the worstEuropean Continent, most shocking crime an individual can commitbut barely talked about in the UK, yet it has become a kind so the publications of commodity which over these men were hugely significant – contributing to the last years has been endlessly packaged as a mass market entertainment industry. We buy newspapers and magazines with blow-by-blow accounts scientific understanding of dreadful true life caseshomosexuality, we read thrillers, watch TV drama series and documentariesbeginning the struggle for recognition and equality, and we can take part leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in murder mystery evenings and weekends at pubs and hotels1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906343</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1910593508|title=1912: The Year the World Discovered AntarcticaApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris TurneyBaker and Mike Collins|rating=45

|summary=If you read those products designed to make you This incredible graphic novel is a published author, one way love letter to start according to so many of them is to look ahead the Moon landings and the passion for a pertinent anniversary, research or know your the subject welldrips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and write Mike Collins. This is a story we know well in advance and as popularly as you because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can on whatever fill in the subject isblanks. Make no mistake, however – Chris Turney, even if he would appear to have followed that dictum These shortcuts are the only downside to the last, is no chancer book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the eye to the temporary relevanceslight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845952103</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark White1786331047|title=KennedyThe Race to Save the Romanovs: A Cultural History of an American IconThe Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport|rating=45

|summary=During his lifetime John Fitzgerald Kennedy created an image The basic facts about the deaths of himself that dazzled Nicholas and Alexandra, some of which has largely remained intact despite were deliberately obscured at the time for various reasons, have long since been established. For the steady leakage last few months of information over their lives in Russia the years which could have been expected to tarnishformer Tsar and Tsarina, their children and few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. It could be argued that - much as To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the case of Elvis Presley revolutionary regime had them all shot and Princess Diana - bayoneted to death was an excellent career movein circumstances which, but Mark White examines the way once the image news was built upconfirmed beyond all doubt, then maintained and - after the assassination - burnished, reinforced and protectedhorrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441161864</amazonuk>