The Life and Times of the Shah

Gholam Reza Afkhami (University of California Press)

A biography of Mohammad Reza Shah, the last Iranian monarch who ruled from 1941 to 1979, which depicts the unfolding of the monarch’s life against the forces and events that shaped the development of modern Iran.

Ordinary People as Mass Murderers

ed. Olaf Jensen and Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann (Palgrave Macmillan)

A collection of essays, which presents an overview of the current state of research on the question of how ordinary people come to participate in mass murder.

Haig: A Reappraisal 80 Years On

ed. Brian Bond and Nigel Cave (Pen & Sword)

A collection of essays, which examine key areas of contention relating to Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, the British Army and the conduct of operations on the Western Front, and provide an insight into how contemporary scholars are currently dealing with such controversies.

The Campaigns of Alexander of Tunis, 1940-1945

Adrian Stewart (Pen & Sword)

A study of Field Marshal Harold Alexander, which considers his career as a divisional commander during the withdrawal through Dunkirk, a general in Burma, Commander-in Chief of the Middle East Command and his leadership during both the campaigns in Tunisia and Sicily and of the Allies’ Italian Campaign.

1809 Thunder on the Danube: Napoleon’s Defeat of the Habsburgs, Volume II: Aspern

John H. Gill (Frontline Books)

The second volume of the author’s work on Napoleon’s 1809 campaign, which provides an account of the emperor’s progress as he sought to complete his victory over the Habsburgs, from both the grand strategic and the individual human level.

Britain’s Gurkha War: The Invasion of Nepal, 1814-16

John Pemble (Frontline Books)

An account of the two-year conflict between the expanding East India Company and the Gurkhas at the beginning of the nineteenth century and how it eventually led to a unique partnership that remains intact almost two hundred years later.

The Argentine Fight For The Falklands

Martin Middlebrook (Pen & Sword)

The military story of the Falklands War, by the only British historian to have been granted open access to the Argentines who planned and fought the war, which provides an insight into the way the Argentine forces were organised for war, the plans and reactions of the commanders, the experiences of the soldiers and their reaction to defeat.

Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, Europe 1944-1945

William I. Hitchcock (Faber & Faber)

The story of Europe’s liberation, which considers the experience of civilians and soldiers and the behaviour of the Allied forces, revealing a darker image than that of Allied soldiers showered in flowers and kisses, traditionally associated with liberated Europe.

The Road to Bosworth Field: A New History of the Wars of the Roses

Trevor Royle (Little Brown)

A history of the Wars of the Roses, which charts the conflict over a hundred years from the reign of Richard II onwards and places it in the context of the political, cultural, religious and social background in the British Isles and Europe as a whole.

Freuds’ War

Helen Fry (The History Press)

An insight into the Freuds’ family life both in pre-war Vienna and during the Second World War, when they became exiled from their homeland following the annexation of Austria in March 1938 and escaped to Britain.

The Desert War: The classic trilogy on the North Africa campaign 1940-43

Alan Moorehead (Aurum)

A new edition of Moorehead’s trilogy of the three-year long campaign on the North African Front during the Second World War, based on his own experiences and personal recollections as a war correspondent for the Daily Express in Cairo.

The Road to the Somme: Men of the Ulster Division Tell Their Story

Philip Orr (Blackstaff Press)

An updated version of Philip Orr’s book, which recalls the tragic story, told by the soldiers themselves, of the Ulster Division’s participation in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, from the events that led up to the battle, to the battle itself, and its aftermath.

A History of Egypt

Jason Thompson (Haus Publishing)

An account of Egypt’s millennia-long past, which studies each era – Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic, Medieval Islamic, Ottoman and modern - in connection to one another and addresses key issues, such as how Egyptian history can be treated as a whole and how the West has shaped prevailing images of it.

The Battle of the Alma 1854: First Blood to the Allies in the Crimea

Ian Fletcher & Natalia Ishchenko (Pen & Sword)

A study of the opening encounter of the Crimean War on September 20th 1854, which provides an insight into military thinking and organisation in the 1850s and considers the battle from all perspectives, British, French and Russian.

Why Socrates Died

Robin Waterfield (Faber & Faber)

An account of Socrates’ trial and death, which moves beyond the iconic picture created by his immediate followers and perpetuated in works of literature and art, to place it in the wider political and social context of the time.

AD 381: Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State

Charles Freeman (Pimlico)

An account of the promulgation of a decree, in AD 381, by emperor Theodosius, which required his subjects to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Freeman provides a reassessment of the subsequent claims that the decree was based on a previous consensus reached by the Christian Church at the Council of Constantinople.