• The best books on Thucydides - Pericles of Athens by Vincent Azoulay
  • The best books on Thucydides - Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens by David Stuttard
  • The best books on Thucydides - The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City by Nicole Loraux
  • The best books on Thucydides - Histories by Herodotus
  • The best books on Thucydides - The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika by Xenophon

The best books on Thucydides, recommended by Johanna Hanink

The Greek historian and general Thucydides wanted his History of the Peloponnesian War “to be a possession for all time.” In that, he’s been remarkably successful, with his name still echoing in the corridors of power. But what lessons should we take away from his great work? Translator and classicist Johanna Hanink talks us through books to better understand Thucydides and the mythical Athens he lived in and wrote about.

  • The best books on The Thirty Years War - Westphalia: the Last Christian Peace 1643-48 by Derek Croxton
  • The best books on The Thirty Years War - Monro, His expedition with the worthy Scots regiment (called Mac-Keyes-regiment) levied in August 1626 by Robert Monro
  • The best books on The Thirty Years War - Wallenstein: His Life Narrated by Golo Mann
  • The best books on The Thirty Years War - European Weapons and Warfare 1618–1648 by Eduard Wagner
  • The best books on The Thirty Years War - Tagebuch Eines Soldners Aus Dem Dreissigjahrigen Krieg Peter Hagendorf (ed. Jan Peters)

The best books on The Thirty Years War, recommended by Peter Wilson

It was a war that devastated Europe and left more than one-fifth of the German population dead. The complex peace agreement that ended it, the Treaty of Westphalia, is still credited with establishing our modern state system. Peter Wilson, Chichele Professor of the History of War at Oxford University and author of the most recent general history of the war, Europe’s Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War, recommends books to read for a nuanced picture of Europe’s cataclysmic 17th-century conflict.

  • The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist - Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination by Robert Bickers
  • The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist - The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris
  • The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist - A Deadly Legacy: German Jews and the Great War by Tim Grady
  • The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist - Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann
  • The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist - Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation by Peter Marshall
  • The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist - Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea by Jan Rüger

The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist, recommended by Carole Hillenbrand

Which were the best history books published this past year? Each year, the UK’s Wolfson Prize tries to sort through the hundreds of history books that are published to find outstanding books that are both important and readable. Wolfson Prize judge Carole Hillenbrand introduces the six books that made 2018 shortlist.

  • The best books on The History of Science and Religion - The Warfare Between Science and Religion: The Idea That Wouldn't Die Edited by Jeff Hardin, Ronald L Numbers, and Ronald A Binzley
  • The best books on The History of Science and Religion - Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives by John Hedley Brooke
  • The best books on The History of Science and Religion - Science, Technology & Society in Seventeenth Century England by Robert K Merton
  • The best books on The History of Science and Religion - Theology and the Scientific Imagination by Amos Funkenstein
  • The best books on The History of Science and Religion - The Empirical Stance by Bas van Fraassen

The best books on The History of Science and Religion, recommended by Peter Harrison

Have science and religion been fundamentally at war throughout history? Are they incompatible? Has religion always held back scientific progress? These views may seem intuitive but few historians would defend them. Professor Peter Harrison looks at the complexity of science-religion interactions, including the cases of Galileo and Darwin, and considers how we frame the debate.