The teachings of the Wahhabi tribe, extreme Islamist fundamentalists, have been a major influence on the formation of modern Saudi Arabia, as well as on Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Charles Allen sheds light on the historical roots of modern terrorism and shows how this dangerous 19th century theology lives on today.
STASILAND
by Anna Funder
Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany. Her examination of the lives of ordinary East Germans before the fall of the Berlin Wall lays bare one of the world's most Orwellian regimes, and its effects on contemporary German society. A superb analysis of what it is like to live in Berlin now, as the city knits itself back together - or fails to.
WAR REPORTING FOR COWARDS
by Chris Ayres
Chris Ayres saw journalism as his ticket to schmoozing with celebrities and penning pompous opinion pieces. Instead he landed a plane ticket to Iraq as a war reporter, 'embedded' with US Marines. Surrounded by military machismo on all sides, he soon decides he wants out. This is an extraordinary true story - wry, intelligent, honest and deeply human. Hilarious, like a latter-day Scoop, it offers a seditious insight into the political events that have defined the century.
AGINCOURT
by Juliet Barker
In 1415, against all odds, 9,000 exhausted English men claimed victory from an army of 20,000 French soldiers at Agincourt. In this landmark study, Juliet Barker draws upon a huge range of sources to give a compelling account of the battle. A mad king, murderous dukes, scheming bishops, knightly heroes, surgeons, spies and pirates; the story of Agincourt has them all.
SCARS OF WAR, WOUNDS OF PEACE
by Schlomo Ben-Ami
An Oxford-trained historian who became Israeli Foreign Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami offers an unflinching account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, informed by his first-hand knowledge of the major characters and events. He paints trenchant portraits of key figures from Ben-Gurion to Bill Clinton, and gives behind-the-scenes accounts of the meetings in Oslo, Madrid, and Camp David.
THE LAST DANCE
by DENYS BLAKEWAY
January 2010
LIVED IN LONDON
by EMILY COLE, ed.
Sub-titled "Blue Plaques and the Stories Behind Them", this noble piece of social history describes in fascinating detail the stories behind London's 800-odd homes adorned by these historic landmarks, and the demanding process of becoming thus acknowledged. Arranged by Borough, predictable figures such as Churchill, Wellington and Pitt are joined by the rather less likely luminaries, such as Hendrix and Gandhi, making this a city history in miniature. And, not to be outdone, the history of the plaques themselves, made by the likes of Minton and Royal Doulton, is a tale in itself. Yale University's London branch has done it again: elegant, costly and worth every penny, this is a singular achievement.
August 2010
LIVED IN LONDON
by EMILY COLE, ed.
May 2010
POISONED PEACE
by Gregor Dallas
Unlike the First World War, there was no peace settlement at the end of WWII in 1945. The shape of Europe was determined entirely by military force, dividing it into two halves which corresponded to neither geography, culture nor previous history. Gregor Dallas looks at the final stages of the Second World War and its lasting impact on the political landscape of Europe today.
DIPLOMATIC INCIDENTS
by CHERRY DENMAN
January 2010
BLACKSHIRT
by Stephen Dorrill
An important and controversial new biography of Sir Oswald Mosley. Hated and adored, trusted and feared, respected and scorned - public opinion has never been lukewarm or indifferent to the man who rejected orthodox, conventional politics and who, in 1932, founded the British Union of Fascists, putting himself "beyond the pale".
NELSON'S PURSE
by Martyn Downer
In July 2002, Sotheby's announced the discovery of a major cache of material relating to Nelson. Martyn Downer, Head of Jewellery at Sotheby's in London, tells the extraordinary historical detective story behind his find and its progress from discovery to auction. His book gives fascinating new insights into the personal and domestic lives of Nelson, his jilted wife Fanny and his mistress Emma, Lady Hamilton.
GENTLEMEN AND BLACKGUARDS
by NICHOLAS FOULKES
Summer 2010
WILD SCOTS
by Michael Fry
From the heroic blood feuds of clan chiefs to the dour asceticism of Presbyterian ministers, Michael Fry's encyclopaedic social history of the Scottish highlands focuses squarely on the people. He traces their fate as emigration, forced clearances and the breakdown of feudal relations undermined traditional customs and shows the inventive ways in which Gaelic culture adapted.
GHOSTS OF SPAIN
by Giles Tremlett
The appearance - sixty years after the Civil War ended - of mass graves containing victims of Franco's death squads has finally broken what Spaniards call 'the pact of forgetting'. At this charged moment, Giles Tremlett embarked on a journey around Spain to investigate the lasting legacy of Franco on the country and its people.
MOSES MONTEFIORE
by ABIGAIL GREEN
Spring 2010
WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER
by William Hague
A lively, authoritative biography of one of the towering figures in British history who became Prime Minister at the age of twenty-four, written by William Hague, the youngest-ever leader of the British Conservative Party. Pitt enjoyed huge success, yet died at the nadir of his fortunes, struggling to maintain a government beset by a thin majority at home and military disaster abroad.
REVOLUTION
by Tim Harris
The 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688, by which William III seized James II's kingdoms, was an event, which completely changed the governments of England, Scotland and Ireland, and which was only accomplished through overwhelming violence. Tim Harris' definitive account reveals why this was a great turning point in Britain's history, but also shows how severe a price was paid to achieve this.
RUSKIN ON VENICE
by ROBERT HEWISON
January 2010
IT IS BLISS HERE
by Myles Hildyard
Myles Hildyard's letters home from WWII provide an unusual and frank memoir of the period. His war letters from Palestine, Crete, North Africa, Italy, and finally Berlin in 1945, provide a witty, and moving portrait of a young man in a hostile and rapidly changing world, while also revealing his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality and the moral and religious problems this imposed upon him.
SAHIB
by Richard Holmes
Richard Holmes' speciality is history in the words and lives of those who lived it. This rich narrative of the British soldier in India, from Clive to the end of Empire, focuses on the personal accounts and experiences of the ordinary soldiers who served in the vast nation that made up the jewel in Britain's imperial crown.
THE HABIT OF VICTORY
by Peter Hore
From its earliest beginnings to the ending of the Second World War, this gripping history tells how the Royal Navy turned Britain into the world's greatest sea power. Peter Hore brings to life one of the most fascinating chapters in British military history as he shows how advances in technology made by the Royal Navy revolutionised their military power.
HELEN OF TROY
by Bettany Hughes
Bettany Hughes's attempts to prove that the face that launched a thousand myths was in fact a real historical figure. In her quest to discover the woman who was the basis for the archetypes, Hughes visits Greece, North Africa and Asia Minor, looking at the physical, historical and cultural traces that she left and examining why her story has wielded such influence for more than three millennia.
FOR LUST OF KNOWING
by Robert Irwin
Robert Irwin, one of the most widely respected scholars of the history of the Islamic world, charts the origins of Orientalism - in this case, the study of the Middle and near East. He also examines its foremost practitioners, as well as the role of imperialism, and the influences of Zionism and anti-semitism on academics working in this area.
TELL ME NO LIES
by John Pilger
An incisive anthology of investigative journalism containing a selection of articles, broadcasts, and book extracts that revealed important and disturbing truths, ranging across many of the critical events, scandals and struggles of the past fifty years. John Pilger introduces his book with a passionate essay arguing that the kind of journalism he celebrates here is being subverted by the very forces that ought to be its enemy.
NELSON AND NAPOLEON
by Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee re-evaluates Britain's greatest ever naval victory, the battle of Trafalgar. He examines the events, the personalities and the intrigues that were operating at the time, focussing particularly on the creation of Horation Nelson as a national hero, and his intense rivalry with Napoleon.
THE GREAT WALL
by Julia Lovell
Behind the Great Wall of China's intimidating exterior—and the myths that have built up around it—is a complex history that has both defined and undermined China. Julia Lovell charts the rise and fall of the great Chinese ruling dynasties over two millennia in this absorbing study of one of China's most enduring icons. A fascinating insight to how China views both the outside world and itself.
SCOURGE AND FIRE
by Lauro Martines
In 1490s Renaissance Florence, the most remarkable man in the city, was 'a lowly little friar' called Savonarola, a charismatic preacher and the talk of all Italy. Protected and revered by Florence's republicans, he spawned enemies on all sides, particularly among the rich and powerful. This is the first full biography of Savonarola, the story of his impact on Florentines and of their grip on him.
Spring 2006
MANSTEIN
by MUNGO MELVIN
Spring 2010
THE HIGHLAND CLANS
by ALISTAIR MOFFAT
It's been done before, and will be again; but rarely has such a concise history of the clans been compiled. Concise and colourful, this delightful celebration of ancient Scottish tradition, from Celtish times to the present day, heralds yet another Thames & Hudson production of typical style and grace. Pocket-sized and solid of girth, like many Scots themselves, God bless 'em, this little work encapsulates the history of that remarkable country at a very affordable price. Thoroughly recommended.
January 2010
WE ARE IRAN
by Nasrin Alavi
This multi-voiced portrait of contemporary Iran, translated from Farsi, uses Iranian weblogs as its primary source. It shows a country, not of bearded ayatollahs and thuggish militias, but one where adult literacy is higher than in many European states, and where 70 per cent of the population is under 30 and keen to usher in a new Iran.
THE BATTLE FOR THE RHINE
by Robin Neillands
The Allied airborne offensive into Holland that ended in bitter failure at Arnhem, and the 'Battle of the Bulge', Hitler's last offensive in the Ardennes, are the two great battles that dominate this story. Neilland's book ends where his previous book The Conquest of the Reich begins, thus forming a trilogy that moves from the Normandy landings to the fall of Berlin.
MUSSOLINI'S ITALY
by R J B Bosworth
Devastated and embittered by its experience of the First World War, Italy under Mussolini subverted, damaged and besmirched any possible democratic or peaceful future. And yet for many ordinary Italians the dictatorship never had the stranglehold on their lives and minds that Mussolini and his associates dreamt that they had. A cogent study of fascism's impact upon Italian society.
PARISIANS
by GRAHAM ROBB
Graham Robb has done it again. After "The Discovery of France", which faces the palatable prospect of becoming a classic, he has now devoted an entire tome to the denizens of Paris, portraying a city in social, cultural and architectural ferment from the Revolution to the present day. This is splendid, gossipy stuff, written by a seasoned hand with an ear for anecdote and an eye for buried treasure. It bodes well to becoming a classic itself.
April 2010
THE TYRANNICIDE BRIEF
by Geoffrey Robertson
The life and death of John Cooke, the prosecuting barrister who sent Charles I to the scaffold in 1649, written by one of Britain's leading QCs and human rights lawyers. Geoffrey Robertson demonstrates how the trial of King Charles established legal principles that hold to this day, and was the forerunner of modern efforts to make tyrannical rulers accountable to the people they oppress.
THE HEIRS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
by Barnaby Rogerson
Within a generation of the Prophet Muhammad's death, his followers had exploded out of Arabia, to confront the Persian and Byzantine empires and establish Islam and a new civilization. Barnaby Rogerson examines this fifty-year span of conquest and empire-building, and identifies the seeds of discord that destroyed the unity of Islam, and created the roots of the Sunni-Schia schism.
THE UTILITY OF FORCE
by Gen. Sir Rupert Smith
From Iraq to the Balkans and Afghanistan, over the past fifteen years there has been a steady stream of military interventions that have not delivered on their promise for peace, or even political resolution. Rupert Smith, one of Britain's leading military thinkers, looks at the art of war in the modern world and explains this anomaly at the heart of the current international system..
THE HISTORY OF THE TIMES
by Graham Stewart
The history of one of Britain's most venerable newspapers, since its takeover by Rupert Murdoch in 1981, and the many changes that took place in the turbulent years that followed. Historian Graham Stewart provides insights into the workings of one of the most controversial business leaders in the world today, and the newspaper that helped shape his media empire.
THAT SWEET ENEMY
by Robert & Isabelle Tombs
Although France and Britain have spent much of their history as allies, their alliance has been uneasy, competitive and ambivalent. Their rivalry, for good and ill, has shaped the modern world, and it is still shaping Europe today. Robert and Isabelle Tombs' book, by turns provocative and delightful, tells the rich and complex story of the relationship over three centuries.
Spring 2006
CHURCHILL'S EMPIRE
by RICHARD TOYE
March 2010
ALAN CLARK
by ION TREWIN
The long-awaited biography of a brilliant diarist, politician and womaniser by his long-time editor, Ion Trewin, who not only knew him intimately, but had unfettered access to a Pandora's box of politically hot hot potatoes at Saltwood, the Kentish castle he called his home. Alan Clark was the the Pepys of his generation and a very naughty boy. It says a great deal for his long-suffering widow that his archives have been released at all, and it is greatly to his publisher's credit that the results are being published untarnished. Bombs away!
Autumn 2009
LONDON 1945
by Maureen Waller
In 1945 England was exhausted by war. London 1945 describes how a great city coped in crisis: how morale was sustained, shelter provided, food and clothing rationed: and work and entertainment carried on. Then, as the joy of VE Day and VJ Day passed, Londoners faced severe shortages, with all the problems of post-war adjustment.
HAROLD MACMILLAN
by CHARLES WILLIAMS
Sir Harold Macmillan is hardly a salacious subject, but this is as much a private as a political biography of a man much maligned. Lord Williams' judicious balancing of HM's political career against the adulterous antics of his wife results in a definitive study, not merely of a key figure in British history of the fifties, but of a decade largely overlooked. From Foreign Secretary to Chancellor to Prime Minister post-Suez, Macmillan spearheaded a post-war recovery even as the Profumo affair precipitated his own demise. Both readable and revealing, this is a well-written work of considerable merit.
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