Almost a decade in the making by Tony Judt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Judt), this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world’s most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar (2005) is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep […]
Why do we often have a fascination for the grisly facts of warfare? Is it because our behaviour in war reveals something about the truth of human nature? We find elements of the highest courage, heroism, self-sacrifice and utter brutality, cruelty, sadism, destructiveness. The outline of these features seem to stand out so much more
Mid-Victorian Britain was a period of enormous confidence and economic expansion for Britain. Geoffrey Best (http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2003/best_g.cfm) gives us a history of great lucidity and readability. The Great Exhibition of 1851 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Exhibition) in fact represented the high-water mark of Victorian society, and the two decades which followed form one of the most fascinating and fruitful areas of British
Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75 Read More »
The story of the Medici (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medici) in Florence is one of intense power struggles and patronage of sublime art works which have made the city into a world class treasure trove of beautiful paintings, sculpture and architecture. This is a fascinating recent account which should leave you spellbound. Next thing – go and visit Florence for
Florence and the Medici Read More »
Why do Japanese businessmen wear Western style suits? Why are global financial markets run on Western European models? How have Western consumerist values come to dominate the world? How has English come to be the global language of science, technology, education, commerce, and just about everything else? British-born archaeologist, classicist and historian Ian Morris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Morris_(historian) and
Why The West Rules ~ For Now by Ian Morris Read More »
Treat yourself to this engrossing narrative history which reveals the roots of modern science in the medieval world. The adjective ‘medieval’ has almost become a synonym for backwardness and uncivilized behaviour. Yet without the work of medieval scholars there could have been no Galileo, no Newton and no Scientific Revolution. In God’s Philosophers, James Hannam (http://jameshannam.com/) debunks
God’s Philosophers by James Hannam Read More »
Rosalind K. Marshall’s (http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/m/20165/Rosalind%20Kay+MARSHALL.aspx) Queen of Scots, first published in 1986, quickly established itself as a popular account of Mary, the most romantic and tragic of all Scotland’s monarchs. Her dramatic tale owes its immediacy and power to the fact that it is closely based throughout on the original sixteenth-century sources, and tells the story using, wherever
The successor to Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai), made a famous remark when asked what he considered to be the consequences of The French Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai). He replied – ‘It’s too early to say’. I think we can safely say that the consequences have been deep and widespread. There is a huge industry of historical
The Oxford History of The French Revolution Read More »
The story of The American War of Independence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_war_of_independence) has usually been told in terms of a conflict between blundering British generals and their rigidly disciplined red-coated troops on the one side, and heroic American patriots in their homespun shirts and coonskin caps on the other. In this fresh, compelling narrative, Christopher Hibbert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hibbert and http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/27/obituary-christopher-hibbert-historian) portrays the
Redcoats and Rebels Read More »
