In our new history books section, we keep track of some of the books coming out by Five Books interviewees and frequently recommended authors. We're also scanning dozens of catalogues and highlighting interesting new history books being published that come to our attention. It's impossible to cover all aspects of history, so these choices inevitably reflect personal preferences and quirks, but do send us an email (sophie@fivebooks.com) if you see a particularly glaring omission on our list!
It's a golden age for historical writing, as well-researched and sometimes quite specialist books by historians are written in an engaging style for a broad audience. Finding an enthusiastic audience among readers then encourages publishers to publish more of the same, in what will hopefully be a virtuous circle.
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
by Peter Frankopan
The Earth Transformed is by Peter Frankopan, a professor of global history at the University of Oxford and a specialist on Byzantium. However, in The Earth Transformed he tells the story not of political dynasties and wars but of the world's climate. Frankopan is a nice writer so this is a good way to get up to speed on the world's climate history, though it is long—650 or so pages—so it's more compendium of information than quick summary.
The World: A Family History of Humanity
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
The World: A Family History by Simon Sebag Montefiore is a doorstopper of a book but a fabulous way to read about world history on a truly global scale across thousands of millennia. What holds it together is a focus on families, starting with the first footprints of a family ever found right the way through to the Trump family. As Sebag Montefiore explains at the beginning, this a work of synthesis, based on his reading and travels over the decades, written up during the Covid lockdowns. It's a really remarkable work of popular history, and a lot of fun to read.
The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
by Anna Keay
*** Winner of the 2022 Pol Roger Duff Cooper prize for nonfiction***
“You hear so much about the Civil War and the Restoration, but this republican period has a fascination all of its own and she really brings that out. I thought, ‘Why didn’t I know more about such a pivotal period in English history?’ It also gives you a very rounded view of Oliver Cromwell. He’s a figure whose name we all know, but fewer of us know what he was like or where he came from. I certainly didn’t, so I found that incredibly illuminating. It’s a terrifically researched work of history—erudite, but so brilliantly told. What Anna Keay has done is picked out the lives of fascinating people on different sides of the conflict. It’s easy to go straight to Samuel Pepys to hear about this period, but she’s done something really original.” Read more...
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist
Caroline Sanderson, Journalist
Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations
by Simon Schama
Foreign Bodies is a book about pandemics and vaccines across the millennia by Anglo-American historian Simon Schama. Schama is a professor at Columbia but also a brilliant popular historian, very talented at getting on top of huge amounts of information and getting it across in a memorable way. This book looks like a good way to say goodbye and get a historical perspective on the Covid pandemic, even as Schama predicts more will follow.
The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism
by Toby Matthiesen
To understand world politics, it's important to understand the Middle East, and to understand the Middle East, it's worth understanding Sunnism and Shiism. The Caliph and the Imam by British historian/political scientist Toby Matthiesen looks at the history of these two branches of Islam from 632, when the Prophet Muhammad died and views differed on who should be his successor. Sunni stands for 'The People of the Tradition and the Community,' and supported four caliphs; Shia stands for 'Party of Ali', supporters of Ali as the sole successor. The book is above all a call for a less simplistic approach to sectarian differences as an explanation of problems in the Middle East. For, as Matthiesen writes, "sectarian identity is most salient when political powers instrumentalize it" and it's the interaction of doctrinal and political tensions that leads to conflict.
Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500
by Peter Wilson
For those of you interested in Prussian/German/Austrian military history—you know who you are—Peter Wilson, author of an excellent book on the 30 Years War—has a new book out that covers half a millennium of it. This is an excellent, accessible account, even just the title clarifying a misquotation many of us learned in school (Otto von Bismarck spoke of iron and blood, not blood and iron, in his famous 1862 speech, a reference to an 1813 poem).
Emperor of Rome
by Mary Beard
Emperor of Rome by British classicist Mary Beard is due out in September and covers a number of emperors. Not much is known about it so far, but according to a synopsis reported in The Bookseller, "it's much more than the usual emperor-by-emperor collection of biographies...For most Romans, one ruler was much like another and she takes a thematic approach instead – looking at the fact and fiction of these rulers, asking what they did and why, and how we have got such a lurid view of them. The themes are autocracy, corruption and conspiracy – and also the day-to-day practicalities of the emperors’ lives (who did the cooking, or took the dictation?)."
The Scythian Empire
by Christopher Beckwith
In The Scythian Empire Christopher Beckwith, Distinguished Professor in Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, makes the case for the Scythian Empire as "one of the least known but most influential realms in all of world history." Scythian was an old Iranic language, and 2,700 years ago, speakers of the language were active around Asia on horseback. Beckwith makes the case that this was the largest empire the world had seen up to that point; even if you disagree it's an interesting read about a period many of us know little about.
Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It
by Janina Ramirez
Femina is a really interesting book about medieval women and history by Oxford-based historian Janina Ramirez. The title is revealing in itself: ‘FEMINA’ was what Ramirez found scribbled in library catalogues alongside texts known to be written by a woman. It's likely they were considered less important and hence not preserved. In the book, Ramirez introduces various medieval women and what we know about them, authors of famous texts like Julian of Norwich or the Loftus Princess, who lived in the 7th century when Christianity was just coming to England and we know only from her bones and her pendant. As Ramirez writes at the opening of the book, "Far from being 'unrecoverable,' developments in archaeology, advancements in technology and an openness to new angles have made medieval women ripe for rediscovery." Ramirez is a very engaging writer and knows just how to pique your interest (she also presents history on TV).
Women and the Crusades
by Helen J. Nicholson
Women and the Crusades is by Helen Nicholson, Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University in the UK. It's an analytical book, looking at the entire period of the Crusades, from the 11th to the 16th century. As anyone who has read "The Wife of Bath" in The Canterbury Tales knows, medieval women enjoyed going on pilgrimages, including to the Holy Land, so it's not surprising to find them engaged in crusading efforts. The book is one way to find out about both medieval women and the Crusades.
India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
by Ramachandra Guha
A new edition (the 3rd) of India after Gandhi by Indian historian Ramachandra Guha is due out in 2023. It's already available in India, but won't appear until July in the UK. This is one of the best books on modern India—according to people we've interviewed on Five Books—and well worth reading for Guha's historical perspective on the latest political developments.
The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I
by Lindsey Fitzharris
For those who like the history of medicine and aren't squeamish, the much-awaited new book by Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butchering Art, is now out. It went straight onto the New York Times bestseller list and does not disappoint.
The Holocaust: An Unfinished History
by Dan Stone
The Holocaust: An Unfinished History is a book about the Holocaust by Dan Stone, Professor of Modern History and Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway (part of the University of London). As a Holocaust specialist, he is able to explain what the Holocaust was and where we're at with our understanding of it—both in terms of scholarship and popular consciousness. This is a book for anyone who has felt uncomfortable at the number of novels and movies about the Holocaust aimed at a popular audience which, while sad, completely gloss over the horror of what happened.
The Story of Russia
by Orlando Figes
The Story of Russia is a highly readable account of the whole of Russian history, from the early days of the Rus to the current war in Ukraine, in fewer than 300 pages. Historian Orlando Figes, author of our most recommended book on Russian history—A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution—shows how that history is essentially a story. This is no different from any other country's national history, constantly changing to reflect current concerns, but it is a story many Westerners are unfamiliar with and crucial to understanding Russia today.
Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-1945
by Halik Kochanski
Anyone whose parents lived through World War II in Europe will have heard stories about the resistance to the Nazis. Heroic deeds make up the bulk of these stories, and tales of collaboration are fewer and further between. Resistance by British historian Halik Kochanski looks at the resistance to the German occupation country by country, to analyze what really happened in a very straightforward, unvarnished way.
Kennan: A Life between Worlds
by Frank Costigliola
Kennan: A Life between Worlds is an excellent biography of George Kennan, the American diplomat and Russophile who first raised alarm bells about Stalin after World War II, authoring an anonymous article in Foreign Affairs and "The Long Telegram". His biographer Frank Costigliola brings to life a man who loved Tolstoy and Chekhov, was devastated at never knowing his mother, and spent most of his life opposing the policy of containment towards the Soviet Union that he's best known for.
A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives Were Transformed by the Rise of Fascism
by Julia Boyd (with Angelika Patel)
Starting with locals coming back from fighting in World War I, A Village in the Third Reich is a really interesting, close look at how inhabitants of the German mountain village of Oberstdorf in Bavaria responded to the rise of Nazism.
The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam
by Christopher Goscha
At the battle of Dien Bien Phu (March-May 1954) Vietnamese forces defeated the French in a pitched battle, paving the way for the colonial power's departure from Vietnam a few months later. Christopher Goscha, a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, looks at how, from almost nothing in 1945, Ho Chi Minh managed to build up the Viet Minh army.
Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II
by Paul Kennedy and Ian Marshall (illustrator)
Paul Kennedy, a historian at Yale and author of the iconic The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, charts the rise of America as a global superpower. The book grew out of a plan to accompany the watercolours of the late Ian Marshall (the illustrations are a key part of the book) but ended up arguing for the key role of US naval supremacy, which was absolute by the end of World War II. "At no other time in history did the naval balances of power change as much," he argues.
Tutankhamun's Trumpet: The Story of Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects
by Toby Wilkinson
Tutankhamun’s Trumpet: The Story of Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects is a good, accessible introduction to the Nile civilisation of more than three millennia ago by Cambridge Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson.
Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle
by Ben Macintyre
An excellent account of the characters and life in one of the most infamous Word War II POW camps. Even if you think you know the story of Colditz, Ben Macintyre brings new insights and context to the Gothic castle, its inhabitants and the surrounding area.
Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921
by Antony Beevor
The latest book by popular military historian Antony Beevor. One reviewer called it a 'masterpiece.' At just under 600 pages (22 hours for the audiobook), this isn't a short book, but Beevor's style is highly readable and draws you into the narrative.
“This book is extraordinary because Rudolf Vrba and a fellow inmate, Alfred Wetzler, were the first Jews ever to break out of Auschwitz. Jonathan Freedland is a fiction writer too—he writes thrillers under the name Sam Bourne—so there is an element of thriller in the way that he describes this escape and the build-up to it. It is incredibly heart-in-your-mouth compelling. But it’s a bigger story than just one man’s breakout. Vrba goes on to try and put the word out about what’s going on in Auschwitz and saves many lives in the process. The book is memorializing one man’s heroism.” Read more...
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist
Caroline Sanderson, Journalist
Persians: The Age of The Great Kings
by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
In Persians: The Age of the Great Kingsby Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the history of the Achaemenid Persian Empire—the largest empire of antiquity—from the point of view of the Persians. The book starts in 1000 BCE and ends in 330 BCE, after Alexander the III (aka the Great)'s defeat of Darius III. As Llewellyn-Jones points out, it's also the story of "one of the great dysfunctional families of history."
The Shortest History of the Soviet Union
by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Australian historian and 20th century Russia specialist Sheila Fitzpatrick's The Shortest History of the Soviet Union covers its seven-decade, complex history in just 230 pages—with comfortable spacing and quite a few illustrations. It’s part of ‘The Shortest History of…’ series (which also has a highly recommended short history of China by Linda Jaivin).
Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World
by Anthony Sattin
It's not out yet, but Nomads looks to be a paean to the wanderers of history across the millennia and is by British travel writer Anthony Sattin.
“I love history and I find medical history in particular very gripping (especially the discovery of vaccines), so I really enjoyed The Empress and the English Doctor: How Catherine the Great Defied a Deadly Virus. The author, Lucy Ward, is a journalist so it’s good bedtime reading, bringing home nicely the story of the fight against the horrors of smallpox as well as focusing on Catherine the Great” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction of Spring 2022
Sophie Roell, Journalist
“If you’re reading this, you probably like books and may be disappointed to learn that Stalin was also a voracious reader. Stalin’s Library: A Dictator and His Books is by British historian Geoffrey Roberts, author of several books on the Russian leader (plus one on Zhukov). Stalin had more than 20,000 books in his library and they weren’t just for show.” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction of Early 2022
Sophie Roell, Journalist
The Last Emperor of Mexico
by Edward Shawcross
The surreal story of Ferdinand Maximilian (1832-1867), the Habsburg archduke and younger brother of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria who was executed after a brief reign as Emperor of Mexico. In addition to the inherent interest of this strange tale, the book is also a nice introduction to a period when Mexico—which had been the centre of the Spanish empire in the Americas for three centuries—became independent but also lost ground to the emerging power of the United States.
“It’s an incredibly ambitious book with a huge range. It presents this world in its full complexity. It’s an incredibly compelling read and it changes the way you see the world.” Read more...
Paul Lay, Historian
“It’s a spectacularly important book because it raises universal themes. We’ve been reading in our papers over the last few days and weeks what it means when war comes to an end, at least temporarily—permanently, I hope—in parts of Ukraine. In towns and small villages, the Russian occupier has been removed and a degree of normal business resumes. You begin to see the consequences in terms of getting hold of food, transportation, collaborators, culture, kids going back to school, all these issues. A lot of my work as a lawyer is dealing with horrendous international cases and it’s the same everywhere—Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Chile—what happens when a degree of normality returns. This book shows that in a powerful way. I found it very affecting.” Read more...
The British Academy Book Prize: 2022 Shortlist
Philippe Sands, Lawyer
Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy
by Anne Sebba
This is a biography of Ethel Rosenberg, the first woman executed in the United States not for the crime of murder, and mother of two small children, aged 10 and 6. Always paired with her husband as 'the Rosenbergs'—executed in New York State for spying for the Soviet Union—in this book Anne Sebba brings Ethel's own story to life, from her dreams for becoming a singer when she was young to the last hugs before she was put to death. As Sebba flags at the beginning, "Ethel Rosenberg was not, I believe, a spy." She was a committed communist, loyal to her husband and not well-turned out (because the couple were poor) or emotional on the witness stand. That, apparently, was enough for her to end up on the electric chair, where even her electrocution was botched. Like so many Cold War stories, it's a brutal one.
The Middle Ages: A Graphic History
Eleanor Janega and Neil Max Emmanuel (illustrator)
The Middle Ages: A Graphic History is by Eleanor Janega, a medieval historian who teaches at a number of London universities and blogs at going-medieval.com and Neil Emmanuel, an illustrator who also worked on Time Team, Britain’s longest-running historical TV show. It's a lovely breeze through a millennium of history, focusing mainly on Europe and the Near East (according to the book, the medieval period in China ended in 960, which means China became 'modern' about 600 years before Europe did). It's a lot of fun and you learn a lot in a couple of hours.
Surviving Katyń: Stalin's Polish Massacre and the Search for Truth
by Jane Rogoyska
Surviving Katyń is a history book that makes the blood run cold. Thousands of Polish prisoners of war were massacred in secrecy, on the orders of the NKVD boss, Lavrenty Beria. When mass graves were discovered in 1943, the Soviets blamed the atrocity on the Nazis, and didn't admit the crime until half a century later. Rogoyska previously wrote a gripping novel about Katyń, Kozlowski.
River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads
by Cat Jarman
That many of the things we thought we knew about the Vikings is wrong was revealed to us in our Five Books interview about the Vikings with medieval historian Eleanor Barraclough in 2016. With our interest in Vikings awakened, it was exciting to see a book called River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads published in February 2021. River Kings is by archaeologist Dr Cat Jarman, who is a senior adviser to the new Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo. Specifically, she is a bioarchaeologist, which means she uses forensic tools—like isotope analysis, carbon dating, and DNA analysis—to try and figure out what happened to bodies buried more than a millennium ago. The book is absolutely mesmerizing, both about the techniques she deploys, and the story she tells about the Viking skeletons she uses those techniques on.
Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
by Serhii Plokhy
In Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy turns his attention to events in the 1960s which nearly led to nuclear armageddon between the US and the USSR. Plokhy's last book, on the Chernobyl disaster, was so brilliant that it won the UK's Baillie Gifford Prize, awarded for the best nonfiction book of the entire year. There are a number of books on the Cuban Missile Crisis told from the American side—starting with Robert F Kennedy's own memoir of that scary period—Thirteen Days—but Plokhy, who is a historian of the Ukraine, offers a more international perspective, including previously classified KGB documents.
We spoke to Serhii in December 2020 about the best books on Russia, selected annually by the judges of the Pushkin House Book Prize.
Living I Was Your Plague: Martin Luther's World and Legacy
by Lyndal Roper
"Living I Was Your Plague, O Pope, dead, I will be your death" are the words Martin Luther wrote on the wall, in chalk, the night before he died. They were the epitaph he wanted to be remembered by. This book, by Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford, is based on the Lawrence Stone Lectures delivered at Princeton University. In some ways, the book is a reflection on her biography of Luther, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Wolfson Prize, and has been recommended on Five Books as one of the best books on the Reformation. She further examines his anti-Semitism. It's also about how he shaped his public image, through, for example, his collaboration with the artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose distinctive artwork contributed "perhaps more to the Reformation's success than anything apart from Luther's own writings"
The Spymaster of Baghdad: The Untold Story of the Elite Intelligence Cell that Turned the Tide against ISIS
by Margaret Coker
The Spymaster of Baghdad is the fascinating story of an elite Iraqi intelligence unit–the Falcons, led by a man called Abu Ali al-Basri—who managed to infiltrate ISIS and collect vital information, particularly in tracking down Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. Margaret Coker is an American reporter—her time in the Middle East included a stint as New York Times Baghdad bureau chief from 2017 to 2018—and she tells the story of two families in particular beautifully.
A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology
by Toby Wilkinson
A World Beneath the Sands by Cambridge Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson tells the story of our encounter with ancient Egypt, from the Greeks and the first time a celebrity tourist—Julius Caesar—went down the Nile to the 20th century. He focuses on a "heyday of Egyptology" bookmarked by two epoch-making events: the decipherment of hieroglyphics, thanks to the Rosetta Stone, in 1822 and the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb a century later.
Our interview with Toby on Ancient Egypt is one of our most-read interviews on Five Books.
Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
by Andrea Pitzer
In Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World Andrea Pitzer takes on the terrible story of the 16th century Dutch explorer and navigator William Barents, after whom the sea is named.
We previously spoke to Andrea about the best books on concentration camps.
The Western Front: A History of the First World War
by Nick Lloyd
The Western Front by bestselling military historian Nick Lloyd is the first volume of an epic trilogy covering World War I. It casts a terrible conflict often portrayed as futile in a new light and tries to bring it alive from both sides. Volumes about the Eastern Front and Africa and the Middle East are set to follow.
Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders
by Dennis Rasmussen
In Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders, political theorist Dennis Rasmussen—whose research focuses on the virtues and shortcomings of liberal democracy and market capitalism—looks at the fears the Founding Fathers of the United States had about the future of democracy.
We spoke to Dennis about the best Adam Smith books and his previous book, The Infidel and the Professor, was one of our best philosophy books of 2017.
On the Ho Chi Minh Trail
by Sherry Buchanan
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was the quasi-mythical network of roads, paths and tunnels that North Vietnam used, in its war against South Vietnam and the Americans, to transport military supplies to its supporters in the South, the Viet Cong. On the Ho Chi Minh Trail is a travelogue, charting American journalist, author and publisher Sherry Buchanan's trip down the trail in 2014, collecting the stories of the young women who played a vital role in keeping the trail open despite the constant American bombing. The book includes pictures of Vietnamese war art, maps and an itinerary (in case you want to follow in her footsteps!) and brings all of the author's knowledge of Vietnam to bear. It includes a photo of the author meeting with Võ Nguyên Giáp, the mastermind behind Vietnam's victory against both the French and the Americans, in 2006.
Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang
by James Millward
It's hard not to be aware of what is going in Xinjiang (literally 'new province') in western China where concentration camps are making a comeback. It's where the Uyghurs live, a generally Muslim ethnic minority who have never appreciated being ruled from Beijing. Historically, relations between the Uyghurs and Beijing have tended to go downhill when the centre is too controlling, and the last two decades have been a disaster. In this updated edition of Eurasian Crossroads James Millward, a leading American historian of the region, explains the historical context of a situation we all have a responsibility to be aware of.
The Age of Wood
by Roland Ennos
At Five Books, we love global history and that means we do have a weakness for books that take one element/material/thing and tell its story across time and space. Roland Ennos, a Professor of Biomechanics at the University of Hull, has focused on a material that has never taken its rightful place in the nomenclature of ages we've lived through (Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age), possibly because the Wood Age is still ongoing.
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain (editors)
Four Hundred Souls is about African American history, from 1619—when the White Lion, the first African slave ship, arrived in Virginia—to the present, but it's also a really interesting book for anyone fed up with the standard historical narratives we learn in school. The book is a series of essays by historians and journalists, activists and poets. Altogether, it brings together 90 Black voices in 80 chronological chapters.
We spoke to Keisha N Blain, co-editor of the book, about Black women's history.
Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
by Sudhir Hazareesingh
***Winner of the 2021 Wolfson History Prize***
Black Spartacus tells the extraordinary story of Toussaint Louverture, general and leader of a successful slave revolt in what is now Haiti. He was fighting—at various times—the Spanish, the British and the French. But beyond that, the book goes into detail about his worldview and how he drew on European Enlightenment ideas, but was also strongly influenced by Christianity and beliefs and cultural practices from Africa.
“This book is not hagiography at all. It’s very easy to look for a great liberation hero. But this book shows a deeply flawed man who clearly didn’t make the lives of those who became free, all that much freer. He wanted hard work. There’s a certain ‘Animal Farm-ness’ about the story. And yet, what an achievement it was for this little island to stand up to one of the great powers of 18th century Europe and create the first predominantly Black-run republic in the world. It’s extraordinary.” Read more...
The Best History Books: The 2021 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Theologians & Historians of Religion
Feminisms: A Global History
Feminisms: A Global History by Cambridge historian Lucy Delap tells the history of an incredibly important—but also complex, confusing and at times contradictory—concept across time and space.
Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy
by Ben Macintyre
Agent Sonya is the latest book by Ben Macintyre, who has made an art of writing nonfiction books about spies that read like thrillers (If you haven't read The Spy and the Traitor yet, you must). Agent Sonya was the codename of Ursula Kuczynski, a German Jew who ended up living in an English village and spying for the Russians.
The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery
by Seb Falk
The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery, by Cambridge historian Seb Falk, is about science and technology in medieval times and, as the title suggests, argues that this period does not deserve to be written off as 'the Dark Ages.' The tale is told through the eyes of John of Westwyk, an interesting figure who was, among other things, a monk, a crusader and an astronomer.
The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans
by David Abulafia
***Winner of the 2020 Wolfson History Prize***
The Boundless Sea is a fascinating book which tells the human story through our relation to the oceans—from the early settlement of the Polynesian islands of the Pacific 3,000 years ago to the present day. Extraordinary in its scope and fascinating in its detail, Abulafia ends with a plea for the sea to be protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. According to Paul Lay, editor of History Today, “David Abulafia is a remarkable historian and this is, I think, his masterpiece."
Editor's note: due to its size, it may be worth getting The Boundless Sea as an ebook, especially if you use an iPad or other tablet, and can still see the book's photos (many of sea-faring vessels) in full-colour.
“It’s sweeping in its coverage across time and space, and he has a magisterial command of the scholarship on the extraordinarily diverse range of regions, periods and events tackled. The sea covers most of the globe, but here we have a history that takes it as a single topic. It’s staggeringly learned but it’s also very readable.What’s impressive about it is that it’s not Eurocentric. It gives equal weight to the whole range of seagoing civilizations. So, for example, famously in the Middle Ages, the Chinese emperor had fleets built that sailed to at least Africa.He tells the fascinating story of these epic voyages, but also cuts it down to size. Legends have inflated the size of these fleets to quite unbelievable levels, and Abulafia takes a more realistic view without in any way diminishing their achievement.Global history has made great strides in the last 15 years or so, and The Boundless Sea is a very good example of how history on a global scale is being written in Britain at the moment.” Read more...
The Best History Books: the 2020 Wolfson Prize shortlist
Richard Evans, Historian
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
by Camilla Townsend
***Winner of the 2020 Cundill History Prize***
“It’s a ground-breaking book in many ways. Camilla Townsend has been doing work on this for a while at what you might call a high scholarly level, and this is an attempt to take that learning to a slightly wider audience…She has access to these documents called xiuhpohualli, which she translates as ‘yearly accounts’, but they are the Nahuatl people’s annals and, using these, she concentrates on a period of roughly about a hundred years either side of Hernan Cortes’s arrival. She is very concerned not to portray the Mexica, the Aztecs, as these people who indulge in human sacrifice and all the other things we know from Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. But it does go on and the human sacrifice actually increases with time.” Read more...
The Best History Books of 2020
Paul Lay, Historian
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World―and Globalization Began
by Valerie Hansen
"Around the year 1000, people around the globe started to realize for the first time that they could leave home, travel to other places, find out about their neighbors and adopt new approaches. A wave of Islam came to Northwest China as part of that movement. People embarked on ocean travel, who hadn’t strayed far previously. The Vikings cross from Greenland to what is today Canada. New routes linked the continents together."
We spoke to Valerie Hansen, Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale, about the best books on the Silk Roads.
The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World
by John Dickie
"I realized there was a fantastic world of stories to tell, once you got past the only two narratives that seem to be in circulation about the Freemasons" —John Dickie
In The Craft John Dickie, a leading expert on the Italian mafia, looks at the world of Freemasonry. Many of us associate the Freemasons with weird handshakes, strange rituals and possibly behind-the-scenes world domination. But truth can be stranger than fiction...
A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain 1874-2018
by Paul Preston
A People Betrayed covers the entire, tumultuous, 20th century history of Spain up to the present and is by Paul Preston, one of the great historians of modern Spain. It received rave reviews in UK broadsheets, with the Daily Telegraph calling it a 'must-read.'
Sir Paul Preston recommended the best books on the Spanish Civil War for us.
Providence Lost: Cromwell's Last Year
by Paul Lay
"The reason I wrote the book—which is called Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell’s Protectorate—is because the period has relatively little purchase with the wider public unlike, say, the Tudors or the Victorians or the Normans. That situation is particularly puzzling because there has been so much great scholarship on this period over the last two decades"—Paul Lay, Five Books interview, December 2019.
Paul Lay, editor of History Today, recommended the best history books of 2020 for us (and the best history books of 2018 and 2019 as well).
“This book examines why statues were put up, what messages they conveyed, how those messages were challenged, what controversies these statues caused, and why and how they were destroyed. The book is very well-researched and looks at statues as a visible and public form of historical storytelling.” Read more...
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
Carole Hillenbrand, Theologians & Historians of Religion
“In this whole book God is anthropomorphised. Through a close examination of the Bible, Stavrakopoulou writes about the various gods depicted in ancient myths and rituals. They came from a particular time. And they were made in the image of the people who lived then, and they were shaped by their circumstances, and experience of the world. She argues that important people in the Hebrew Bible were not historical figures and that probably very little of the Hebrew Bible is historical fact.” Read more...
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
Carole Hillenbrand, Theologians & Historians of Religion
“It shows us how religious life was woven into people’s everyday experiences, from Anglo-Saxon times to the Reformation. It is richly illustrated, too.” Read more...
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
Carole Hillenbrand, Theologians & Historians of Religion
Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688
by Clare Jackson
*** Winner of the 2022 Wolfson Prize ***
“It tells the story of a nation in a state of near-continual crisis and it will change our views of the 17th century. It is also extremely well written. It provides fresh insights by looking at England through European eyes.” Read more...
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
Carole Hillenbrand, Theologians & Historians of Religion
“Gaskill has written several books on witchcraft, but this one is a little different. He focuses on one specific episode 370 years ago, to teach broader lessons about superstition, mental illness and human cruelty… The book is beautifully and clearly written.” Read more...
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
Carole Hillenbrand, Theologians & Historians of Religion
“The book unfolds a sweeping narrative stressing the importance of the Ottoman dynasty, both in relation to Middle Eastern countries, but also its role in European history.” Read more...
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist
Carole Hillenbrand, Theologians & Historians of Religion
“These extraordinary houses, owe something to European patterns, but are also English in their way. The great tragedy is that almost nothing of them remains. There’s an arch on the Victorian embankment from one of the houses but they disappeared mainly during the civil wars.” Read more...
Paul Lay, Historian
“To be taken to France it has to be taken off the wall and cut in half. It is brutal in the way it’s done, but Napoleon makes a kind of science of plunder.” Read more...
Paul Lay, Historian
“Napoleon took a great interest in horticulture as a child. And at the end, he almost becomes a child, I think. You know, in his beginning was his end. And in his end was his beginning.” Read more...
Paul Lay, Historian
“The Habsburgs always refer to themselves as ‘the house of Austria’. And Rady argues that this concept of Austria was as much an idea as it was to kind of geographical location or a geographical base.” Read more...
Paul Lay, Historian
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1
The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs
by Marc David Baer -
2
The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World
by Malcolm Gaskill -
3
Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688
by Clare Jackson -
4
Going to Church in Medieval England
by Nicholas Orme -
5
God: An Anatomy
by Francesca Stavrakopoulou -
6
Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
by Alex von Tunzelmann
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist, recommended by Carole Hillenbrand
The Best History Books: the 2022 Wolfson Prize Shortlist, recommended by Carole Hillenbrand
Every year the Wolfson History Prize celebrates books that combine meticulous and original research with great writing, accessible to the general reader. Here, one of the 2022 judges, the eminent Islamic scholar Carole Hillenbrand, guides us through the shortlist to explain why each book is a must-read.
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1
Napoleon: a Life in Gardens and Shadows
by Ruth Scurr -
2
Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese’s Feast
by Cynthia Saltzman -
3
The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World
by Marie Favereau -
4
London's 'Golden Mile': The Great Houses of the Strand, 1550–1650
by Manolo Guerci -
5
The Habsburgs: To Rule the World
by Martyn Rady
Best History Books of 2021, recommended by Paul Lay
Best History Books of 2021, recommended by Paul Lay
Historical writing continues to shed new and interesting light on all manner of topics, including even much-written about subjects like Napoleon, who died 200 years ago this year. Paul Lay, the editor of History Today, offers his choices for the best history books published in 2021.
