History Recent Picks

January 2009

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From Egypt to Babylon : the international age 1550-500 BC, by Paul Collins.
"The ancient Egyptians, Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites, Canaanites, Hurrians, Aramaeans, Israelites, Urartians, Mannaeans, Assyrians, Phygians, Kassites, Chaldeans, Elamites, Scythians, Medes and Persians. An evocative list of peoples: but who were they? Where did they come from, and how did they interact over a thousand years of ancient history, before the establishment of the Persian empire? The years 1500-500 BC represent an extraordinary period of internationalism. From the Aegean and Egypt, through Canaan, Syria and Anatolia, to Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) and Iran, the region was linked by military expansion, diplomatic exchanges and movements of goods and peoples over enormous distances, resulting in cultural transfers and technological and social revolutions.Turmoil at the end of the second millennium BC saw the collapse of the powerful Hittite empire and a diminution of Egypt's empire abroad. Local groups rose in Syria and Anatolia, and new states such as Israel and Judah were formed. In due course, the Assyrian empire reached from Egypt to Iran while the Phoenicians flourished in the west. The Greeks established trading connections and colonies throughout the Mediterranean world and Black Sea. The result was a continued cultural sharing between east and west as city-states and small kingdoms interacted with the major empires: Egypt, Assyria, and its successor Babylonia. Ultimately this enormous region was unified by the kings of Persia who thus created the largest empire the ancient world had known." (Book Synopsis Amazon UK)

Millennium : the end of the world and the forging of Christendom, by Tom Holland.
"Of all the civilisations existing in the year 1000, that of Western Europe seemed the unlikeliest candidate for future greatness. Compared to the glittering empires of Byzantium or Islam, the splintered kingdoms on the edge of the Atlantic appeared impoverished, fearful and backward. But the anarchy of these years proved to be, not the portents of the end of the world, as many Christians had dreaded, but rather the birthpangs of a radically new order. MILLENNIUM is a stunning panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. This was the age of Canute, William the Conqueror and Pope Gregory VII, of Vikings, monks and serfs, of the earliest castles and the invention of knighthood, and of the primal conflict between church and state. The story of how the distinctive culture of Europe - restless, creative and dynamic - was forged from out of the convulsions of these extraordinary times is as fascinating and as momentous as any in history." (Book Synopsis Amazon UK)

Butcher & bolt, by David Loyn.
"Afghanistan has been a strategic prize for foreign empires for more than 200 years. The British, Russians and Americans have all fought across its beautiful and inhospitable terrain, in conflicts variously ruthless, misguided and bloody. A century ago, the common sneer about how British soldiers treated Afghan tribesmen was that they would 'butcher' them, then 'bolt'. This violent history is the subject of David Loyn's magisterial book. He begins with the first British mission exactly 200 years ago - the bizarre, almost medieval progress of Mountstuart Elphinstone, who probed west beyond the known boundaries of British India to find the Amir of Afghanistan clad in an emerald breastplate, wearing the Koh-i-Noor diamond. That encounter ushered in a history of conflict littered with misunderstandings and broken promises, in which the British, the Russians and later the Americans, constantly under-estimated the ability of the Afghans and the power of the Frontier tribes."Butcher and Bolt" brilliantly brings to life the personalities involved in Afghanistan's relationship with the world, chronicling the misunderstandings and missed opportunities that have so often led to war. Coming right up to date, it draws on David Loyn's unrivalled knoweldge of the Taliban today and the forces that currently prevail in Afghanistan, to provide the definitive analysis of the lessons these conflicts have for the present day." (Book Jacket)

Cuba in revolution : a history since the fifties,by Antoni Kapcia.
"'Cuba In Revolution' provides a much-needed account of the Cuban Revolution and Cuba's history over its fifty years of existence since 1959. Antoni Kapcia unravels the complexities of the sometimes perplexing, and often misunderstood process of continual change, and explains the Revolution's remarkable survival after the deep and potentially terminal crisis brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989-91. This book looks at the process of social revolution and the benefits and disadvantages that accrued as a result; the evolution of, and consensus about, ideology, and Castro's elevation to national leader; popular participation in the Revolution; the Revolution's changing international profile and relations; the politics of defence and dissent; and finally the crisis post-1990 which generated the mechanisms of survival and adaptation in the face of America's trade embargo.The book is aimed at the wide readership following modern and contemporary world politics, modern political history, Latin American and developing world history and politics, and radical politics." (Book Synopsis Amazon UK)

World War II : behind closed doors, by Laurence Rees.
"In 'World War II: Behind Closed Doors', award-winning documentary-maker and historian Laurence Rees brings us a gripping new history of World War II - one that is full of surprises, even for those who think they know the history. Drawing on material only available since the opening of archives in the East, Rees re-examines the key decisions made by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during the war. And as the truth about Stalin's earlier friendly relationship with the Nazis is laid bare, a devastating and surprising picture of the Soviet leader emerges - one that is deeply embarrassing for many Russians.The emotional core of the book is the amazing new testimony obtained from nearly a hundred separate witnesses from the period. Former Soviet secret policemen talk frankly for the first time about their repressive work; Allied seamen reveal how they braved the Arctic convoys; and Red Army veterans talk of how they killed Germans in hand-to-hand fighting on the Eastern Front. Accompanying a major six-part BBC2 history series, this enthralling narrative is a mix of high politics - including the inside story of the Allies' meetings at Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam - and the dramatic personal experiences of those on the ground who bore the consequences of their decisions." (Book Synopsis Amazon UK)

It’s all Greek to me : everything you need to know about the greatest civilisation that ever was, by Charlotte Higgins.
"Consider the way we think: about right and wrong, about the nature of beauty, goodness, and truth. What, in the end, it is to be a human being amid the immensity of the universe. What it is to be mortal, to live for a brief while, and die. All this, and more, we have learned from the ancient Greeks. They moulded the basic disciplines and genres in which we still organise thought: from poetry to drama, from politics to philosophy, from history to medicine, and even ethnography. Packed with useful cribs - history timelines; a who's who; a guide to the Greek gods; a map for those who struggle to know their Lemnos from their Lesbos - It's All Greek to Me is a bluffer's guide in one sense, a primer that will give you a helping hand around Greek democracy, or the Persian Wars, or the Parthenon. But it is much more than that; it is a book of enthusiasms and pleasures, which aims to bring ancient Greece back into the mainstream of life - where it belongs." (Book Synopsis Amazon UK)

Dambusters : a landmark oral history, by Max Arthur.
"On the 17th May 1943, nineteen Lancaster bomber crews gathered at a remote RAF station in Lincolnshire for a mission of extraordinary daring and high risk - a night raid on three crucial and heavily defended dams deep in the German industrial heartland. The raiders would have to fly across occupied Europe at a perilously low level and drop their bombs at a mere 60 feet above the water to destroy the dam walls. Eight planes never returned. Bestselling author Max Arthur has collected together first-hand accounts of the preparation, practise, organisation and the raid itself, and the sense of emptiness and loss at RAF Scampton when 52 men failed to return. From RAF personnel and civilians to Germans who witnessed the raid, this landmark oral history collection paints a moving and personal picture of one of the most famous operations of the Second World War. There are only 5 survivors of the Dambusters raid still living, 2 in the UK, 1 in the US, 1 in Canada and 1 New Zealander." (Book Jacket)

The time traveller’s guide to medieval England : a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century, by Ian Mortimer.
"The past is a foreign country. This is your guidebook. Imagine you could get into a time machine and travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? Should you go to a castle or a monastic guest house? And what are you going to eat? What sort of food are you going to be offered by a peasant or a monk or a lord? This radical new approach turns our entire understanding of history upside down. It shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. It sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you, the reader, to the middle ages, and showing you everything from the horrors of leprosy and war to the ridiculous excesses of roasted larks and haute couture.Being a guidebook, many questions are answered which do not normally occur in traditional history books. How do you greet people in the street? What should you use for toilet paper? How fast - and how safely - can you travel? Why might a physician want to taste your blood? And how do you test to see if you are going down with the plague? The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: revolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail, and startling for its portrayal of humanity in an age of violence, exuberance and fear." (Book Jacket)

How the South could have won the Civil War : the fatal errors that led to Confederate defeat, by Bevin Alexander.
"Military historian Alexander (Lost Victories et al.) offers a well-reasoned brief that lays the blame for the Confederate defeat in the Civil War primarily on President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee, and their war-long insistence on conducting toe-to-toe frontal assaults against the much-stronger Union Army. Alexander argues that had Davis and Lee listened to Gen. Stonewall Jackson, things very well could have turned out differently. Jackson-and like-minded generals Joseph E. Johnston, Pierre G.T. Beauregard and James Longstreet-warned against conducting an offensive war against the North. Instead, they advocated waging "unrelenting war" against "undefended factories, farms, and railroads" north of the Mason-Dixon line, bypassing the Union Army and winning indirectly "by assaulting the Northern people's will to pursue the war." While Alexander convincingly argues that there was nothing inevitable about a Southern defeat, he is no "Lost Cause" advocate. Instead, he presents well-drawn and clear-eyed tactical and strategic analyses of the war's most crucial battles (including First and Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg) to buttress his contention that had Jackson not perished in May of 1863 (and had Lee and Davis adopted Jackson's strategy), the South just might have won the Civil War." (Publishers Weekly Oct 8, 2007)

In memoriam : remembering the Great War : in association with the Imperial War Museum, by Robin Cross.
"Ninety years after the cessation of gunfire on the Western Front, the Imperial War Museum pays tribute to the memory of those who fought its battles with a major new exhibition. The exhibition focuses on remembrance, honouring the lives of the men and women who suffered the war's atrocities and this lavishly illustrated book is an arresting complement to it. Using letters, diary entries and eye-witness accounts, respected historian Robin Cross presents a compelling narrative of the war through the personal stories of its heroes. Including archive material published here for the first time, iconic photographs and artefacts that so strikingly evoke the Great War, this powerful and extraordinary book vividly brings its horrors and heroics to life with startling immediacy and poignancy. As the last of the veteran generation gradually fade from view, this remarkable book pays homage to their memory and provides new insights into a war which still resonates and fascinates today." (Book Synopsis Amazon UK)

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