1<\/span> The Tudors in Love: The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty<\/em> by Sarah Gristwood<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Just when we think we know everything about the Tudors, along comes a book that turns that all on its head. Reading Sarah Gristwood\u2019s The Tudors in Love: The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty<\/em> <\/strong>(Oneworld) feels like being given the cypher to decode the letters between Mary, Queen of Scots and her Catholic conspirators. For the first time, there are satisfying answers to such conundrums as why Henry VIII took six wives and why the male favourites of Elizabeth I worshipped her as a goddess, even in her old age. The prose is as seductive as the subject matter. Be prepared to fall in love.<\/p>\n
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The King\u2019s Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein<\/em> by Franny Moyle<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Staying in the Tudor age, the celebrated painter Hans Holbein brought Henry VIII and his courtiers to life, and his startlingly realistic portrayals still give us insights into their character as well as their appearance. Yet the man himself has, for the most part, remained a shadowy figure. Franny Moyle puts this right in her stunning biography, The King\u2019s Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein<\/em><\/strong> (Apollo), which evokes the painter and his world as vividly as a Holbein masterpiece. As well as propounding theories about his best-known works, she presents him as a true polymath.<\/p>\n
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The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History<\/em> by James Clark<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Finally, The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History<\/em><\/strong> (Yale University Press) by James Clark is an impressively detailed study that yields a rich harvest. Clark has unearthed a wealth of overlooked details to challenge centuries of controversy and misconception, and provides a welcome new perspective on Henry VIII, his \u201chenchman\u201d Thomas Cromwell and other powerful members of the court, as well as the people whose lives were forever blighted by the destruction they wrought.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Simon Sebag Montefiore is a historian, author and broadcaster. His books include Written in History: Letters that Changed the World<\/a> (2018) and The Romanovs 1613\u20131918<\/em><\/a> (2016, both W&N)<\/strong><\/p>
4<\/span> The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind<\/em> by Jan Lucassen<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind<\/em><\/strong> (Yale) by Jan Lucassen is a brilliant, magisterial multi-millennial tour de force of world history from Sumerian villages to today\u2019s iPhones. Filled with fascinating ideas and facts, it\u2019s essential reading for our strange times.<\/p>\n
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Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer<\/em> by Steven Johnson<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Steven Johnson provides a gripping and lucid history of how, in a century, humans have cured epidemics, elongated life and reduced child mortality in Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer<\/em><\/strong>(Riverhead). As much a tale of campaigners, philanthropists and activists as genius scientists, his account is full of original thinking. It promises to change the way you see life itself today.<\/p>\n
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Empire and Jihad: The Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870\u20131920<\/em> by Neil Faulkner<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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Then there\u2019s Neil Faulkner\u2019s superb, compelling and exuberantly written history of Britain\u2019s Arab Wars in Empire and Jihad: <\/em>The Anglo-Arab Wars <\/em>of 1870\u20131920<\/em> <\/strong>(Yale). It\u2019s filled with fascinating but sensitive portraits and clich\u00e9-busting, balanced analysis. Radical but nuanced, Faulkner changes the way we think about the subject, and is as damning of the Mahdist rebels as Victorian empire builders.<\/p>\n
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The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity<\/em> by David Graeber and David Wengrow<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity<\/em><\/strong> (Allen Lane) by David Graeber and David Wengrow is a spectacular, flashy and groundbreaking retelling of human history, blazing with iconoclastic rebuttals to conventional wisdom. Full of fresh thinking, it\u2019s a pleasure to read and offers a bracing challenge on every page.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Andrew Roberts is the author of George III: The Life and Reign of Britain\u2019s Most Misunderstood Monarch <\/em><\/a>(Allen Lane, 2021)<\/strong><\/p>
8<\/span> The Making of Oliver Cromwell<\/em> by Ronald Hutton<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The Making of Oliver Cromwell<\/em> <\/strong>(Yale) had me spellbound. Ronald Hutton weaves a convincing story of the rise of Cromwell from an extraordinarily slender number of sources. The way in which he weighs the evidence for each theory about the young Cromwell exhibits the finest aspects of the historian\u2019s profession. Similarly, he makes a strategically confusing civil war easily comprehensible. The product of a lifetime\u2019s study, the book has changed my view of the Lord Protector. I am panting for the second volume.<\/p>\n
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Roman Britain\u2019s Missing Legion: What Really Happened to IX Hispana?<\/em> by Simon Elliott<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Simon Elliott\u2019s Roman Britain\u2019s Missing Legion: What Really Happened to IX Hispana?<\/em><\/strong> (Pen & Sword) is a detective-style whodunnit that aims to discover the fate of the legendary Ninth Legion (Legio IX Hispana) after AD 108. Was it lost on the Rhine, or in the east of the empire, or in Caledonia (as Rosemary Sutcliff posits in her novel The Eagle of the Ninth)? I won\u2019t spoil it by telling you what Elliott reveals, but he explains things satisfactorily, while also leaving open a few loose ends and doubts.<\/p>\n
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The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain<\/em> by Tristram Hunt<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain<\/em><\/strong> (Allen Lane) sees Tristram Hunt argue that Wedgwood was epicentral to the transformation of Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A truly astonishing combination of inventor, entrepreneur, artist and promoter, Wedgwood somehow managed to be \u201cPotter to Her Majesty\u201d Queen Charlotte, while also a supporter of both the American and French Revolutions. This is a remarkable book from a historian at the top of his game.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Suzannah Lipscomb is a historian, author and broadcaster, whose recent books include The Voices of N\u00eemes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc<\/em><\/a> (Oxford, 2019). She is also co-editor, with Helen Carr, of What Is History, Now?<\/em><\/a> (W&N, 2021)<\/strong><\/p>
11<\/span> Elizabeth Stuart: Queen of Hearts<\/em> by Nadine Akkerman<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Nadine Akkerman\u2019s Elizabeth Stuart: Queen of Hearts<\/em> <\/strong>(Oxford University Press) is an extraordinary biography of a much-maligned and much-forgotten queen. Elizabeth Stuart was the daughter of James VI and I, sister to Charles I, and Queen of Bohemia as wife to Frederick V, Elector Palatine. Akkerman knows her archive as few have ever done, and demonstrates how to resurrect an early modern woman.<\/p>\n
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Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers<\/em> by Mary Wellesley<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Mary Wellesley\u2019s Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers<\/em><\/strong> (Riverrun) is a gorgeously written debut work from a historian of great talent. In it, we encounter the \u201calchemy of parchment\u201d: the manuscripts that make the dead speak to us as if they were yet alive. It\u2019s an exquisite meditation on the role of chance, the obscurity of individuals, and the nature of history itself.<\/p>\n
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The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World<\/em> by Malcolm Gaskill<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Malcolm Gaskill\u2019s The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World<\/em><\/strong> (Allen Lane) is simply one of the best history books that I have ever read. It tells the story of a confessed witch who accused her husband of the same crime in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651 \u2013 four decades before the famous witch trials in Salem. Gaskill vividly depicts life in early colonial New England and brilliantly uses witness depositions to piece together a thrilling narrative. His deeply imaginative, empathetic and yet empirical exploration of a past moment of crisis is history at its finest.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>Helen Carr is the author of The Red Prince: The Life of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster<\/em> <\/a>(OneWorld, 2021) and co-editor, with Suzannah Lipscomb, of What Is History, Now?<\/em><\/a> (W&N, 2021)<\/strong><\/p>
14<\/span> The Anglo-Saxons: A New History of the Beginnings of England<\/em> by Marc Morris<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The Anglo-Saxons: A New History of the Beginnings of England<\/em><\/strong> by Marc Morris (Hutchinson) is a sweeping but detailed analysis of the Anglo-Saxons over a period of six centuries. Morris explores the art, architecture, religion and politics of the people who populated much of Britain after the Romans left. This period is often called the \u201cDark Ages\u201d, but, by illuminating the creative, martial and societal achievements of these people, and in his reinvigoration of characters of the period \u2013 whether real or legendary \u2013 Morris shines a fresh light on the Anglo-Saxon age as the epoch of medieval history.<\/p>\n
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Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain<\/em> by Amy Jeffs<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Reading Amy Jeffs\u2019 Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain<\/em><\/strong> (Riverrun) feels like listening to a bard orate mystical stories of the world that was. Erudite and lyrical, Jeffs takes readers by the hand and encourages us to join her as she guides us through the mystical landscape that is indelibly woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. This book will make you stick your walking shoes on and get outside to breathe in the history of this ancient land.<\/p>\n
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The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing<\/em> edited by Hannah Dawson<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
From the 15th-century writings of Italian poet and author Christine de Pizan to present-day writers such as bell hooks and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing<\/em><\/strong> (Penguin), edited by Hannah Dawson, rounds up the voices of women from across history to discuss the meaning and practice of feminism. This is a book that every person should read: the multiplicity of voices from various times and spaces allows women of the past alongside women of the present to be noisy about why feminism matters. It is a collective masterpiece.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Sathnam Sanghera is a journalist and author of books including Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain<\/em><\/a> (Viking, 2021)<\/strong><\/p>
17<\/span> We\u2019re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire<\/em> by Ian Sanjay Patel<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
In 1948, the British parliament did an extraordinary thing: it passed a law enacting what had been true for decades \u2013 that anyone born in the empire had the rights of a British citizen. The legislation formally granted 600 million people from across the planet the right to emigrate to Britain. That was far more than the number of white people living in Britain, and around 10 times today\u2019s British population. In We\u2019re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire<\/em><\/strong> (Verso), Ian Sanjay Patel explains what happened between this moment and the Windrush scandal, when British citizens of colour found themselves being deported to nations they didn\u2019t know. It is the best possible guide to an essential history.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 18<\/span>
Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselve<\/em>s by Peter Mitchell<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
At times, it can feel that the culture wars aimed at sowing division in Britain are going to tear us apart. Peter Mitchell\u2019s fantastic Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselves<\/em><\/strong> (Manchester University Press), however, provides grounds for optimism and teaches us that the answer is to be informed \u2013 and there is no more erudite guide than Mitchell.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Alex von Tunzelmann is a historian and screenwriter. Her most recent book is Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made Histor<\/em>y<\/a> (Headline, 2021)<\/strong><\/p>
19<\/span>
Cuba: An American Histor<\/em>y by Ada Ferrer<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Ada Ferrer\u2019s Cuba: An American History<\/em><\/strong> (Scribner) is an epic, gripping account of the unique island nation, from before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the 21st century. Ferrer puts Cuba\u2019s troubled relationship with the United States at the centre of her narrative, which makes her book enlightening for scholars of both nations. Since I wrote my book Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean<\/em> (Simon & Schuster, 2011), I\u2019ve often been asked to recommend an accessible book on the longer history of Cuba. I\u2019m delighted to have found one that is so intelligent, so nuanced and so thoroughly researched.<\/p>\n
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What Is History, Now?<\/em> co-edited by Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
I\u2019ve been enraptured by What Is History, Now?<\/em> <\/strong>(W&N), a collection of essays edited by Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb. They have put together a diverse and distinguished selection of voices to update the discussion of history started by Carr\u2019s great-grandfather, EH Carr. (I have an essay in it too, but please don\u2019t let that put you off!) Many of the chapters have spurred me to broaden and deepen my own perspective in aspects of history which I haven\u2019t always considered.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Rana Mitter is professor of history at the University of Oxford. His books include China\u2019s Good War<\/em> <\/a>(Belknap, 2020)<\/strong><\/p>
21<\/span> The Gate to China: A New History of the People\u2019s Republic and Hong Kong<\/em> by Michael Sheridan<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Michael Sheridan\u2019s The Gate to China: A New History of the People\u2019s Republic and Hong Kong<\/em> <\/strong>(William Collins) takes one of the biggest stories of the last year \u2013 the Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong\u2019s freedoms of speech and assembly \u2013 and places it in historical context. Sheridan\u2019s gripping, richly researched history sheds a highly critical light on those British officials of the Thatcher era who seemed to favour Beijing\u2019s autocracy over the promotion of liberal values, and movingly recounts the brief hopes of Hong Kong\u2019s reformers whose democratic enlightenment has turned to darkness.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 22<\/span>
The Gun, the Ship and the Pen<\/em> by Linda Colley<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Liberal reform also plays a central role in Linda Colley\u2019s lucid and erudite The Gun, the Ship and <\/em>the Pen<\/em><\/strong> (Profile), which shows how constitutional reform went hand in hand with conflict to create a modern imperial world. Constitutions brought law and new freedoms around the globe, but they also marginalised many groups, including women and people of colour. One of the most fascinating elements is Colley\u2019s take on how Japan\u2019s Meiji Constitution inspired reform in many parts of the late 19th century non-western world, including Turkey and China.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 23<\/span>
Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s<\/em> by Sheila Rowbotham<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The history of a historian is at the heart of a deeply compelling story about the making of our own times. Sheila Rowbotham is a pioneer of women\u2019s history, and her new book Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s<\/em> <\/strong>(Verso) uses her own experiences as a framework for explaining an era of sweeping social change. From inspiring cleaners to unionise, to bringing socialism and feminism together through the writing of a new kind of social history, Rowbotham\u2019s humanity and craft shines through.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Olivette Otele is a historian and professor of the history of slavery at the University of Bristol, and author of African Europeans: An Untold History<\/em><\/a> (C Hurst & Co, 2020)<\/strong><\/p>
24<\/span> Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War<\/em> by Howard W French<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Histories of transatlantic enslavement taught in schools in Europe and North America have tended to start with European traders and sea captains. Shifting our gaze, Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War<\/em> <\/strong>(Liveright) by Howard W French challenges us to rethink the birthplace and premise of debates about modernity. Impeccably written and highly stimulating, it engages with centuries of world history and places people of African descent at its heart.<\/p>\n
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What Britain Did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule<\/em> by Max Siollun<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Staying in Africa, Max Siollun\u2019s What Britain Did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule<\/em> <\/strong>(C Hurst & Co) focuses on colonisation. Siollun disentangles the complex political and economic knots of colonial administration and their consequences on Nigeria\u2019s societal organisation. Laying a solid ground for understanding the dialogues, pushbacks and forced collaborations that are at play when communities are under duress, Siollun forces us to delve into the nuances that are an integral part of colonial histories.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 26<\/span>
America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s <\/em>by Elizabeth Hinton<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Elizabeth Hinton\u2019s timely and disturbing America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s<\/em><\/strong> (William Collins) tells the story of racial unrest and police brutality in the US since the 1960s. Hinton delves into the spiral of police violence and the ways in which it has been supported by the political arena, documenting how it has been ignited by black communities\u2019 demands for equality. Equally alarming were the ways in which peaceful socialising led to unsolicited police attention and harassment that inflamed the black population. Hard-hitting but essential.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Tom Holland is an author whose most recent book is Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind<\/em> <\/a>(Little, Brown, 2019). He is co-presenter, with Dominic Sandbrook, of the podcast The Rest Is History<\/em><\/strong><\/p>
27<\/span> The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English<\/em> by Hana Videen<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Hana Videen\u2019s The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English<\/em> <\/strong>(Profile) is a wonderful book that blends linguistics with a survey of everyday life in Anglo-Saxon England. If you want to know why music was known as dream-cr\u00e6ft, what was meant by sawel-dreor \u2013 \u201csoul blood\u201d \u2013 or the origins of our days of the week, then this is for you. It constitutes a veritable leornung- hus: a \u201clearning house\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 28<\/span>
Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment\u2019s Bloody War from D-Day to VE Day<\/em> by James Holland<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment\u2019s Bloody War from D-Day to VE Day<\/strong><\/em> (Bantam Press) tracks the progress of a tank regiment, the Sherwood Rangers, from D-Day to the Second World War\u2019s dying days. Brilliantly researched and unsparingly detailed, it gives a portrayal of the Allied victory in Europe that I found revelatory. Certainly, I had no idea that the fighting had been quite so brutal. The book is simultaneously heart-stopping, panoramic and moving. And I am not saying that because James Holland is my brother\u2026<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>Nick Rennison is the author of books including Carver\u2019s Truth<\/em><\/a> (Corvus, 2016) and 1922: Scenes from a Turbulent Year<\/em><\/a> (Oldcastle Books, 2021)<\/strong><\/p>
29<\/span> Daughters of Night<\/em> by Laura Shepherd-Robinson<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Laura Shepherd-Robinson\u2019s Daughters of Night<\/em> <\/strong>(Mantle) is a thriller set in 1780s London that opens with the discovery of a murdered woman in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The victim has been found by Caro Corsham, the spirited daughter of a banker, and she forms an unlikely alliance with investigator Peregrine Child to seek out the truth about the killing. However, events lead her into danger and a confrontation with her own family\u2019s darkest secrets.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 30<\/span>
Black Drop<\/em> by Leonora Nattrass<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Black Drop<\/strong><\/em> (Viper), Leonora Nattrass\u2019s hugely enjoyable debut novel, also takes place in the British capital, but a decade later, as the government gazes anxiously across the Channel at revolutionary events in France. Foreign Office employee Laurence Jago stumbles into a world of treason and conspiracy when he discovers the body of a fellow clerk and begins to suspect up-and-coming politician George Canning of murder.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 31<\/span>
Circus of Wonders<\/em> by Elizabeth Macneal<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Elizabeth Macneal\u2019s successful debut of 2019, The Doll Factory<\/em>, explored some of the odder corners of Victorian England, a milieu to which she returns in her second novel, Circus of Wonders<\/em><\/strong> (Picador). Her heroine, Nell, is a country girl, singled out by the birthmarks that cover her skin, whose life is transformed when she is seen by travelling showman Jasper Jupiter. He whisks her off to London to join his show, where she becomes a daring aerialist. Soon, her fame eclipses his own. Nell\u2019s relationship with Jasper\u2019s brother, haunted by his experiences in the Crimean War, further complicates Macneal\u2019s plot.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 32<\/span>
Rose Nicolson<\/em> by Andrew Greig<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Another remarkable woman trapped by the circumstances of her birth gives her name to Andrew Greig\u2019s Rose Nicolson<\/em><\/strong> (Riverrun). As 16th-century Scotland is riven by religious and political divisions, student poet Will Fowler is drawn to the freethinking Rose, the daughter of an impoverished fishing family, but class differences and the turbulence of the times dictate both their fates.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 33<\/span>
Cathedral<\/em> by Ben Hopkins<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Books\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Ben Hopkin\u2019s Cathedral<\/em><\/strong> (Europa Editions) is a powerful work of the imagination. One of the year\u2019s most ambitious and expansive novels, it\u2019s an epic story of life in an invented German city during the medieval period. The fortunes of Hopkins\u2019 many characters \u2013 from a visionary architect to a Jewish trader threatened by Gentile greed \u2013 are shaped by the building, over decades, of a new cathedral.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Plus: here are our top picks from 2020\u2026<\/h3>\n
In the\u00a0Christmas 2020 issue of\u00a0BBC History Magazine<\/em><\/a>, 10 historians selected their favourite historical page-turners published in 2020. First to\u00a0choose is\u00a0Gareth Williams. Williams\u2019 most recent book is\u00a0Unravelling the Double Helix: The Lost Heroes of DNA<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2019)\u2026<\/strong><\/p>
34<\/span>
War Against Smallpox<\/em>\u00a0by Michael Bennett<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Smallpox"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Two books that resonated with me this year cover different eras in the 200- year campaign to defeat smallpox, one of humanity\u2019s greatest scourges. Michael Bennett\u2019s\u00a0War Against Smallpox\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(CUP) explains how vaccination conquered the world in the quarter-century after Edward Jenner introduced it in the 1790s. It\u2019s an incredible journey, with walk-on parts for Napoleon, Jefferson and the tsar of Russia.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
35<\/span>
The Great Inoculator<\/em>\u00a0by Gavin Weightman<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""greatinoculator"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Gavin Weightman\u2019s\u00a0The Great Inoculator\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Yale) looks at variolation, the bizarre 18th-century precursor of vaccination. Patients were deliberately infected with smallpox\u00a0(not the harmless cowpox \u00a0used in vaccination), hoping to confer protection against future attacks. Amazingly, it worked, notably in the hands of Daniel Sutton, a non-medical entrepreneur, who marketed his secret method as \u201csafe, quick and pleasant\u201d and apparently variolated more than 10,000 people without a single death from smallpox. He built up a huge franchise but later lost out to plagiarists and ultimately vaccination. His story isn\u2019t \u201cuntold\u201d, but Weightman relates it with clarity and verve.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
36<\/span>
Agent Sonya<\/em>\u00a0by Ben Macintyre<\/h3>\n<\/div>
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\""AgentSonya"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
For my last choice I want to jump to 1949 when, without warning, the USSR exploded an atomic bomb. Behind the leaking of atomic secrets to the Soviets was Ursula Kuczynski, a pro-communist German Jew known to her English neighbours as \u201cMrs Burton\u201d and as \u201cSonya\u201d to her Red Army bosses. As related by Ben Macintyre in\u00a0Agent Sonya\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Viking), her espionage career took her to China, Poland, Germany and England. The cover blurb claims her story \u201chas never been told\u201d. In fact, a translation of Kuczynski\u2019s autobiography appeared in 1991, but, as expected, Macintyre makes this a riveting and thought-provoking read.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Chosen by Tom Holland. Tom Holland\u2019s latest book is\u00a0Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Little, Brown, 2019)<\/strong><\/p>
37<\/span>
Sicily \u201943<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0James Holland<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Sicily"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
I hope I will not be accused of undue nepotism when I nominate my brother James Holland\u2019s\u00a0Sicily \u201943\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Bantam) as a revelatory read. The latest in a series of books that trace campaigns of the Second World War, it combines the experience of men (and occasionally women) on the ground with a searching analysis of the tactical and strategic layers of an operation that, in this brilliantly detailed study, is redeemed from the enormous condescension of posterity.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
38<\/span>
The Story of China<\/em>\u00a0by Michael Wood<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""China"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
I also hugely enjoyed Michael Wood\u2019s\u00a0The Story of China\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Simon & Schuster), a book that is learned, lyrical and astonishingly comprehensive in its scope. It was exactly the single volume history of this brilliant and remarkable civilisation that I had always dreamed of finding.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
39<\/span>
Thebes<\/em>\u00a0by Paul Cartledge<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Thebes"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The art of fusing scholarship with readability is similarly evident in Paul Cartledge\u2019s history of\u00a0Thebes\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Picador), a city that has always been the ugly duckling of ancient Greek history. The great value of this book is that it enables us to see the Thebans not through the eyes of their enemies, but as they themselves would have wished to be seen.<\/p>\n
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Finally \u2013 a slight cheat \u2013 I would like to recommend the Patreon account of the brilliant scholar of Old English, Eleanor Parker, whose blog and tweets have long been a source of particular delight to me. Subscribers to her\u00a0Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>account receive regular and seasonally appropriate posts on the rhythms of the Anglo-Saxon calendar: full moons, feast days, the cycles of sowing and reaping. In this strange and fractured year, I have found Parker\u2019s posts a source of comfort and \u2013 dare I use the word? \u2013 joy.<\/p>\n
I only hope that some enterprising editor has subscribed to her account and will commission her to transcribe it into a book.<\/p>\n
Chosen by Priya Atwal. Atwal is the author of\u00a0Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Hurst, 2020)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
40<\/span>
Stealing from the Saracens\u00a0<\/em>by Diana Darke<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""saracens"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Grounded at home during the \u2018Great Lockdown of 2020\u2019, the summer and autumn months brought with them a surprising gift: the opportunity to read and reflect deeply, thanks to some particularly wonderful historical writing. Travelling abroad was not an option while I was living with vulnerable family members, but Diana Darke\u2019s\u00a0Stealing from the Saracens<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Hurst) transported me to some of the grandest architectural sites of Europe. It vividly reveals how many of the continent\u2019s most iconic Christian buildings are deeply inspired by medieval Islamic, \u2018Saracenic\u2019 influences. Darke\u2019s message that \u201cno society exists in isolation, and everything is connected\u201d feels all the more moving as we live through a global pandemic.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
41<\/span>
The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of the Stars<\/em>\u00a0by Jo Marchant<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""cosmos"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
What connects us all more than the stars in the sky? Jo Marchant\u2019s fascinating book,\u00a0The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of the Stars<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Canongate), is a \u201clong history of knowledge that people have gleaned from the stars\u201d, as well as a \u201cglimpse into the mental universe of our ancestors\u201d. A beautifully written blend of scientific and historical scholarship, it also makes a passionate case for why we need to peel our eyes away from our smartphones and look up to the skies more often, to recover a connection with our ancestors and restore our collective wellbeing.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
42<\/span>
The King and the People: Sovereignty and Popular Politics\u00a0in Mughal Delhi<\/em> by Abhishek Kaicker<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""KingPeople"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
I was deeply impressed by Abhishek Kaicker\u2019s\u00a0The King and the People: Sovereignty and Popular Politics in Mughal Delhi<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(OUP). In this delightful, highly readable book, Kaicker offers up a pioneering study of popular politics during Mughal rule. You\u2019ll be amazed at how much shoemakers and coffee contributed to the making of sovereignty in early modern India!<\/p>\n
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Chosen by Keith Lowe.\u00a0Lowe\u2019s most recent book is\u00a0Prisoners of History: What Monuments to the Second World War Tell Us About Our History and Ourselves<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(HarperCollins, 2020)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
43<\/span> Britain\u2019s War: A New World 1942\u20131947\u00a0<\/em>by Daniel Todman<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Britains\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
As ever, scores of books about the Second World War were published this year. For me, the pick of the bunch was Daniel Todman\u2019s\u00a0Britain\u2019s War: A New World 1942\u20131947\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Allen Lane) \u2013 the second volume in his magisterial history of Britain during this most pivotal moment in 20th- century history. Todman covers the military events in detail, but he also deals with the social and economic costs of the war, the huge shifts in party politics, changes in religious thinking, class consciousness, attitudes towards empire, women\u2019s rights and much more. Virtually no aspect of British life is left untouched.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
44<\/span>
Crucible of Hell<\/em>\u00a0by Saul David<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Crucible"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Focusing on the other side of the world is Saul David\u2019s brilliant\u00a0Crucible of Hell\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(William Collins), a harrowing account of the battle of Okinawa in 1945. The attention to detail in this book is exemplary: we see the conflict from just about every angle \u2013 Japanese as well as American \u2013 drawn from eyewitness accounts and declassified documents. Okinawa is a battle too often neglected in western narratives of the war despite being, in David\u2019s account, directly responsible for Truman\u2019s decision to use the atom bomb later that summer.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
45<\/span>
Shakespeare in a Divided America<\/em>\u00a0by James Shapiro<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""DividedAmerica"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Putting aside the Second World War, one of my other favourite books this year was James Shapiro\u2019s\u00a0Shakespeare in a Divided America\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Faber & Faber). In seven self-contained essays, Shapiro describes the issues that have repeatedly torn the United States apart over the past 200 years \u2013 using Shakespeare as his lens. It sounds contrived, but if you want to understand some of the deeper, historical issues behind this year\u2019s car-crash of an election, Shapiro\u2019s book is an excellent place to start.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Chosen by Suzannah Lipscomb.\u00a0Lipscomb is the author of\u00a0The Voices of N\u00eemes: Women, Sex and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(OUP, 2019)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
46<\/span> The Light Ages\u00a0<\/em>by Seb Falk<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""LightAges"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Firstly, I\u2019d nominate Seb Falk\u2019s book,\u00a0The Light Ages\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Allen Lane). It\u2019s stunning: both exquisitely written and so very clever. By following the life of one little-known monk, John of Westwyk, Falk opens up for us the sophisticated and utterly different ways in which people in the Middle Ages thought and makes us question our assumptions about the medieval past.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
47<\/span>
The Fall of the House of Byron<\/em>\u00a0by Emily Brand<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Byron"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Equally outstanding in sheer quality of prose and scrupulosity of research is Emily Brand\u2019s\u00a0The Fall of the House of Byron\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(John Murray). This gripping tale of scandal through three generations \u00a0of the Byron family will finally put pay to any idea that the Georgians were boring. Instead, we\u2019re given a tale of murder, seduction, incest, elopement and shipwreck, all centred around the crumbling Newstead Abbey: just gorgeous.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 48<\/span>
Inge\u2019s War\u00a0<\/em>by Svenja O\u2019Donnell<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Inges\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Family history is also at the centre of investigative journalist Svenja O\u2019Donnell\u2019s\u00a0Inge\u2019s War\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Ebury). Part history and part memoir, this engrossing and moving read exposes the secret\u00a0shame and suffering of those on the wrong side of history and, in so doing, unearths a vitally important story from the Second World War. Its revelations and thought- provoking reflections have stayed with me.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 49<\/span>
Hamnet<\/em>\u00a0by Maggie O\u2019Farrell<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Hamnet"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
I must mention Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s wonderful\u00a0Hamnet\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Tinder Press), which superbly evokes the 16th century as she recreates the family life of Shakespeare and the death of his only son. It may make you cry, but you will not be able to put it down.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Chosen by Tracy Borman. Borman\u2019s latest book is the third instalment of her King\u2019s Witch fiction series, The Fallen Angel<\/em> <\/a>(Hodder, 2020)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
50<\/span> Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and her Successors<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Alison Weir<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Queens"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
The book that I most anticipated this year was Alison Weir\u2019s\u00a0Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and her Successors<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Jonathan Cape). The second instalment of her England\u2019s\u00a0Medieval Queens series, it tells the story of five \u201ctowering female figures\u201d of the Middle Ages who broke the mould of the dutiful queen consort. They were crusaders, rebels, seductresses and intellectuals \u2013 forces to be reckoned with in their own right. Told with all of Weir\u2019s characteristic verve and exceptional eye for detail, this book should find its way into every history lover\u2019s Christmas stocking.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
51<\/span>
Tudor Textiles<\/em>\u00a0by Eleri Lynn<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Textiles"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
From royal rebels to royal fashion. Dress expert Eleri Lynn\u2019s lavishly illustrated volume\u00a0Tudor Textiles<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(Yale) shines a light on the dazzling beauty and extravagance of court\u00a0fashion and d\u00e9cor. In raiding the sumptuous Tudor royal wardrobe, Lynn has uncovered some real gems: from\u00a0Henry VIII<\/a>\u2019s tapestries which were worth more than the crown jewels, to the recently discovered dress thought to have belonged to\u00a0 Elizabeth I<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the only one of her 1,900-strong dress collection to survive.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
52<\/span>
Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II<\/em>\u00a0by Linda Porter<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Mistresses"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Royal adornments of a rather different kind are brought to life in Linda Porter\u2019s\u00a0Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Picador). The sexual exploits of the \u201cMerrie Monarch\u201d\u00a0provided ample fodder for diarists such as\u00a0Samuel Pepys<\/a>, but they are not the main focus here. Instead, Porter provides a set of impeccably researched pen portraits of the seven women who dominated the king\u2019s life. Allowing the women to take centre stage for a change makes for an engaging and enlightening read.<\/p>\n
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Chosen by Yasmin Khan. Yasmin Khan teaches at the University of Oxford. She has recently been presenting\u00a0Britain\u2019s Biggest Dig<\/em>\u00a0on BBC Two alongside Alice Roberts\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
53<\/span> Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire\u00a0<\/em>by Priya Atwal<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Royals\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
A brilliant book from this year that is full of surprising stories is Priya Atwal\u2019s\u00a0Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Hurst). Atwal has managed to craft a very fresh and page-turning\u00a0history of the origins and demise of the\u00a0Sikh kingdom<\/a>, which gives a lot more attention to the role of Ranjit Singh\u2019s wives and children than many previous accounts of his life. In particular the story of Jind Kaur, the young regent and mother of Prince Duleep Singh, and her struggle to maintain his crown in the face of British imperial power, is very moving. These were tough and ingenious Punjabi women.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
\u00a0<\/p>
54<\/span>
Time\u2019s Monster: History, Conscience and British Empire<\/em>\u00a0by Priya Satia<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Time's\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
My second nomination, Priya Satia\u2019s\u00a0Time\u2019s Monster: History, Conscience and British Empire<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Allen Lane), turns the lens on history as a subject, asking how we have told the story of empire in the past. The\u00a0author offers a scholarly and analytical interpretation of how historians themselves have framed the ways that empire is understood in British history writing \u2013 from John Stuart Mill to EP Thompson.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 55<\/span>
Black and British:\u00a0A Short, Essential History<\/em>\u00a0by David Olusoga<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Black\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
And to the present day: David Olusoga is the best possible person to write\u00a0Black and British:\u00a0A Short, Essential History<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Pan Macmillan). This new, updated edition of his 2016 book is aimed\u00a0at younger readers, and it\u00a0appears at a time when many people are debating the best ways to tell histories of empire and race in the classroom. Olusoga describes it as \u201cthe book I wish I had been given to read when I was at school\u201d, and I couldn\u2019t agree more.<\/p>\n
Buy now on Amazon<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Chosen by Simon Sebag Montefiore, whose latest book is\u00a0Voices of History: Speeches That Changed the World<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(W&N, 2019)<\/strong><\/p>
56<\/span>
Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945<\/em> by Volker Ullrich<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Hitler"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
One of my favourite books from 2020 was\u00a0Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(Bodley Head). Volker Ullrich\u2019s superb and supreme new biography, while complementing other classic biographies of\u00a0the dictator, is also fresh, up-to-date, shrewd and beautifully written. I think it\u2019s the best biography of Hitler written so far.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
57<\/span>
The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous\u00a0<\/em>by Joseph Henrich<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Weirdest"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
I also really enjoyed the intriguing idea behind\u00a0The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Allen Lane) by Joseph Henrich. He argues\u00a0that \u201cWestern, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic\u201d people are atypical, because the west was formed by exceptional processes that helped Europe dominate the world post 1750. The result is a brilliant performance \u2013 accessible, playful and scholarly, turning conventional history on its head and approaching it in a new way.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 58<\/span>
The Decline and Rise of Democracy:\u00a0A Global History from\u00a0Antiquity to Today\u00a0<\/em>by David Stasavage<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Democracy"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
In fact, it would make a perfect companion piece for David Stasavage\u2019s readable, intriguing and academic\u00a0The Decline and Rise of Democracy:\u00a0A Global History from\u00a0Antiquity to Today\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Princeton) \u2013 an outstanding volume that analyses the development of democracy and autocracy in a refreshing and relevant way.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
59<\/span>
Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran\u00a0and the Rivalry That Unravelled the Middle East<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Kim Ghattas<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""BlackWave"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Lastly, I loved Kim Ghattas\u2019s colourful, grim and gripping\u00a0Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran\u00a0and the Rivalry That Unravelled the Middle East\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Wildfire), which uses the Iranian Revolution and\u00a0other events of 1979 to show how the Middle East turned towards extremism and intolerance.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Chosen by Kehinde Andrews,\u00a0professor of black studies at Birmingham City University. His books include\u00a0Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Bloomsbury, 2018)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
60<\/span> A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance<\/em>\u00a0by Stella Dadzie<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""A\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Transatlantic slavery is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented periods of history. Stella Dadzie offers a much-needed corrective by centring on the\u00a0 experiences of black women forced into the\u00a0plantation system<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Verso). The horrors of enslavement, its impact on Africa, Britain\u2019s central role, and most importantly, the fierce resistance both on the African continent and in the Americas are all evocatively drawn out. Contrary to popular narratives, black women were active agents in this history.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
61<\/span>
Obeah, Race and Racism: Caribbean Witchcraft in the English\u00a0Imagination<\/em>\u00a0by Eugenia O\u2019Neal<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Obeah"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
In order to enslave Africans, many slave-owners tried to violently erase all connections between the enslaved and the African continent. In\u00a0Obeah, Race and Racism: Caribbean Witchcraft in the English\u00a0Imagination<\/em><\/strong>(University of the West Indies Press), Eugenia O\u2019Neal explores how traditional African beliefs were maintained and became a key source of resistance. O\u2019Neal also examines how these beliefs were ridiculed, becoming proof of African inferiority, which still echoes into the present day.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>
62<\/span>
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Les and Tamara Payne<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""malcolm\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Malcolm X is one of the most talked about and misrepresented figures of the 20th century. In\u00a0The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Viking), Les and Tamara Payne offer a detailed portrait of Malcolm\u2019s family, life and politics that makes clear how much his voice is needed today. The book also provides a detailed history lesson of the America that produced Malcolm, from the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to the importance of the Garvey movement, and the complicity of the state machinery in maintaining an unjust social order.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>Nick Rennison selects this year\u2019s best historical fiction.\u00a0Rennison is the author of\u00a0Carver\u2019s Truth<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Corvus, 2016)<\/strong><\/p>
63<\/span> The Devil and the Dark Water<\/em>\u00a0by Stuart Turton<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Devildarkwater"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Few historical novels this year were as boldly imaginative and colourful as Stuart Turton\u2019s\u00a0The Devil and the Dark Water\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Raven). In the 1630s, a ship leaves Batavia in the Dutch East Indies for Amsterdam. On board is an East Indies Company bigwig and his entourage. Murder, mystery and possibly supernatural phenomena plague crew and passengers alike. As the ship sails into increasingly troubled waters, Turton\u2019s plot grows ever more extravagant and bizarre, but his grip on his readers\u2019 attention never slackens.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 64<\/span>
The Mercies<\/em>\u00a0by Kiran Millwood Hargrave<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Mercies"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Set in the same century,\u00a0but worlds away from Turton\u2019s baroque adventure, Kiran Millwood Hargrave\u2019s debut novel for adults,\u00a0The Mercies<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Picador), charts the experiences of women from\u00a0a remote Norwegian island, who have lost their menfolk during a terrible storm, following the arrival of a witch-hunting new magistrate. Hargrave\u2019s heroine, Maren, forms a bond with the magistrate\u2019s oppressed young wife as he doubles down on his increasingly violent persecutions in an unusual, memorable tale.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 65<\/span>
A Room Made of Leaves<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Kate Grenville<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""roomofleaves"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Kate Grenville\u2019s intelligent, insightful novel,\u00a0A Room Made of Leaves<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Canongate), also features a woman obliged to cope with the inflexible pride and paranoia of her husband. In the recently\u00a0established penal colony of New South Wales, Elizabeth Macarthur struggles with the demands of an unhappy marriage and slowly discovers her true self amid the initially alien landscapes of a new world.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 66<\/span>
The Abstainer<\/em>\u00a0by Ian McGuire<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""theAbstainer"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Grenville\u2019s character is based on a real-life pioneer of white Australia, and Ian McGuire\u2019s\u00a0The Abstainer\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Scribner) similarly has a plot inspired by genuine historical events. It is set largely in Manchester in the\u00a01860s, after three Irishmen, Fenians committed to the struggle to free Ireland from English rule, have been hanged. World-weary policeman James O\u2019Connor and Irish-American assassin Stephen Doyle, who is intent on revenge for the hangings, stalk one another through\u00a0the city\u2019s streets and beyond in a gripping story of violence, obsession and the\u00a0urge for retribution.<\/p>\n
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Buy now from Waterstones<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> 67<\/span>
Execution<\/em>\u00a0by SJ Parris<\/h3>\n<\/div> $\""Execution"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Meanwhile, espionage in the Tudor era has provided the backdrop for the sequence of enjoyable\u00a0historical thrillers by SJ Parris,\u00a0who has turned Giordano Bruno, the 16th-century heretic and philosopher, into an engaging hero.\u00a0Execution\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(HarperCollins), the latest in the series, sees Bruno once more in the\u00a0employ of Elizabeth I\u2019s spymaster,\u00a0Sir Francis Walsingham, and playing a dangerous game as an undercover agent amid conspirators plotting to assassinate the English queen. Parris combines vivid details of Elizabethan life with an ability to create intriguing characters and sustain a thoroughly entertaining narrative.<\/p>\n
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This content first appeared in the Christmas 2021 and <\/em><\/strong>Christmas 2020 issues of BBC History Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
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By Ellie Cawthorne Published: Friday, 19 November 2021 at 12:00 am In the Christmas 2021 issue of BBC History Magazine, 11 historians selected their favourite historical page-turners published in 2021. First to choose is historian and author Tracy Borman, whose books include Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy (Hodder & Stoughton, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6670,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"39"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/33-best-books-for-history-lovers-bbc-history-magazines-books-of-the-year-2021.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/33-best-books-for-history-lovers-bbc-history-magazines-books-of-the-year-2021-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/33-best-books-for-history-lovers-bbc-history-magazines-books-of-the-year-2021-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/33-best-books-for-history-lovers-bbc-history-magazines-books-of-the-year-2021.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/33-best-books-for-history-lovers-bbc-history-magazines-books-of-the-year-2021.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/33-best-books-for-history-lovers-bbc-history-magazines-books-of-the-year-2021.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/33-best-books-for-history-lovers-bbc-history-magazines-books-of-the-year-2021.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ellie Cawthorne Published: Friday, 19 November 2021 at 12:00 am In the Christmas 2021 issue of BBC History Magazine, 11 historians selected their favourite historical page-turners published in 2021. First to choose is historian and author Tracy Borman, whose books include Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy (Hodder & Stoughton,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/6669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}