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Augustine - review

Book cover for Augustine

Posted on: 10 September 2021

Introduction The tagline for this book could be ‘a biography of an autobiography’ – it conveys a sense of what Robin Lane Fox manages to achieve in his award winning book, an analysis of how one of...

★★★★☆ (2015)

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About Time - review

Book cover for About Time

Posted on: 10 September 2021

Clocks are about more than just telling the time. At one level this is a statement of the obvious: we all know that the watch you wear is not chosen purely for its practicality as a time-keeping...

★★★★☆ (2021)

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Thebes - review

Book cover for Thebes

Posted on: 2 September 2021

In 371 BCE the Thebans achieved one of the most shocking victories in the history of warfare, by trouncing the previously invincible Spartans at the battle of Luectra despite being outnumbered almost...

★★★★☆ (2020)

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In Defence of History - review

Book cover for In Defence of History

Posted on: 25 August 2021

I have never knowingly met a post-modernist. Perhaps I have been going to the wrong parties – back in the days when I went to parties. I am keen to meet one. If you are one or can introduce one get in...

★★★★☆ (1997)

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Castlereagh - review

Book cover for Castlereagh

Posted on: 14 August 2021

Why Bew why now? John Bew’s biography of Robert Stewart (generally known as Viscount Castlereagh, the courtesy title he held most of his adult life) was published ten years ago, which raises the very...

★★★★☆ (2011)

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Dictators - review

Book cover for Dictators

Posted on: 8 August 2021

Frank Dikotter’s ‘Dictators: the Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century’ is a highly readable potted history of eight twentieth century dictators, charting the rise and (more often than not) the...

★★★☆☆ (2019)

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Making Deep History - review

Book cover for Making Deep History

Posted on: 6 August 2021

How do you envisage a million years? Clive Gamble in “Making Deep History: Zeal, Perseverance and the Time Revolution of 1859” tell us that Charles Darwin was advised in 1868 to try this exercise:...

★★★☆☆ (2021)

Posted on: 6 August 2021

“Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, agreeing with me that new history books are important, in his recent...

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What Is History? - review

Book cover for What Is History?

Posted on: 31 July 2021

There is something about the theory of history or historiography – ie how and why the study of history is conducted – that can inflame passions among professional historians. Seemingly mild mannered...

★★★★★ (1961)

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