Recommendations from our site
“Emma Smith’s book brings a lot of pleasure. It’s very enjoyable. There are lots of juicy, tasty, and heart-warming anecdotes. We liked the way in which the stories are woven together. You’re moving around from the 12th century to the present. It’s not in a random way because there is an overall movement and sense of direction, and the sixteen chapters have particular themes to them. You get a sense of the power of books. There’s power in a positive sense, but the Stephen King quotation is also about the potential for books to be, as Emma Smith says, sickening, disturbing and enraging. Books have that negative capacity, too. One of the chapters is about Mein Kampf. That chapter is topical because it’s all about freedom of expression, which is an important issue for us all at the moment.” Read more...
The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize
Sudhir Hazareesingh, Political Scientist
Our most recommended books
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On War
by Carl von Clausewitz -
Histories
by Herodotus -
Life and Fate
by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler -
The Confessions
by Augustine (translated by Maria Boulding) -
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
by Christopher Browning -
The Interesting Narrative
by Olaudah Equiano