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new books

New history books in May 2024

by Anthony Webb, 1 June 2024

12 to add to the pile from last month with a common theme of colonial conflict - from Yale and Slavery, encounters between indigenous Australian people and the British, the Spice Trade, and the direct connections between slavery and English country estates. A few more thoughts on particular books below...

Click the book covers to see a zoomed in image and links to Amazon if you like to buy your books there.

The Missing Thread: How Women Shaped the Course of Ancient History
Bennelong and Phillip: A Relationship Unravelled
Out of One, Many: Ancient Greek Ways of Thought and Culture
Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World
Yale and Slavery: A History
Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean
Nepal: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present
A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity
Zhou Enlai: A Life
The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Destruction of the Old Ottoman World
Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain
In the Service of the Shogun: The Real Story of William Adams
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Three that I thought were particularly interesting are:

  • Bennelong and Phillip: A Relationship Unravelled, by Kate Fullagar. Exploring these two protagonists who seem to be well known in Australia (one a local, the other British) but unknown to me, as indeed is much of Australia's history except in very broad outline.

  • In the Service of the Shogun: The Real Story of William Adams, by Frederik Cryns. I read Shogun by James Clavell a couple of months ago, which is based on the story of William Adams. I thought it was an amazing book (and amazingly long) but I thought that it must be hamming up the Japanese nobility... maybe In the Service of the Shogun will set the story straight?

  • The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Destruction of the Old Ottoman World, by Eugene Rogan. Something else I don't know anything about but the blurb has convinced me that I should know more...

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