From Harper's, what is, and to what end do we study history? If we adhere rigidly to the truth, to a quest for the truth, Friedrich Schiller tells us, we will move forward. A review of The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo by Sir Edward Creasy. Empire and Its Discontents: A review of The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain by Nicholas B. Dirks; The Roman Predicament: How the Rules of International Order Create the Politics of Empire by Harold James; and Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors by Charles S. Maier.
The history book that has everything: What do you want from a history book? Knowledge, interpretation, style, restraint — and strong opinions. The New Penguin History of the World has it all. From Polis to Imperium: A review of The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian by Robin Lane Fox. A review of Cultural Borrowings and Ethnic Appropriations in Antiquity. A review of Xenophon's Retreat: Greece, Persia and the End of the Golden Age by Robin Waterfield. A review of La "crise" de l'Empire romain de Marc Aurèle à Constantin. Mutations, continuités, ruptures. We're just a flea bite away from catastrophe ourselves: A review of Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe by William Rosen (and more and more and more).
A review of Europe's Reformations, 1450-1650: Doctrine, Politics, and Community by James D. Tracy. A review of The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning (and more). A review of Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769-1799 by Philip Dwyer. A review of Napoleon in Egypt: The Greatest Glory by Paul Strathern. A review of Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna by Adam Zamoyski. A review of A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France by Jennifer Pitts. A review of William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner by William Hague; Abolition!: The Struggle to Abolish Slavery in the British Colonies by Richard S. Reddie; and The Trade, The Owner, The Slave by James Walvin (and more and more).
A review of World War One: A Short History by Norman Stone. Nine decades ago the Royal Family switched to an English-sounding name because of anti-German feeling, as did some of their subjects. Is there an echo of this predicament today? From The Atlantic Monthly, a review of Europe At War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory by Norman Davies. A review of Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941 by Ian Kershaw. A review of Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War by Chris Bellamy. A review of Hitler's Home Front: Württemberg under the Nazis by Jill Stephenson. A review of The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton (and more). The introduction to From Guilt to Shame: Auschwitz and After by Ruth Leys. A review of Churchill: The Unexpected Hero by Paul Addison. A review of Austerity Britain 1945-51 by David Kynaston. Graciana del Castillo and Edmund S. Phelps on the road to post-War recovery. A review of The Berlin Wall: 13 August 1961 – 9 November 1989 by Frederick Taylor (and more). An excerpt from The Logics and Politics of Post-WWII Migration to Western Europe by Anthony M. Messina. A certain way of being European: A review of In Europe: Travels through the twentieth century by Geert Mak.
