New Wednesday Paperbacks

Imperial City: Rome under Napoleon, Susan Vandiver Nicassio (University of Chicago Press)
In 1798, the armies of the French Revolution sought to transform Rome from the capital of the Papal Sates to a Jacobin Republic. Imperial City is a social, cultural and political history of Rome and its people during the following two decades when the city was the subject of power struggles between the forces of the Empire and the Papacy.

From Mesopotamia to Iraq: A Concise History, Hans J. Nissen and Peter Heine (University of Chicago Press)
A study of 12,000 years of the history of Iraq, which traces its evolution into a contested part of the Ottoman Empire, a 20th-century British colony, a republic ruled by Saddam Hussein and the democracy it has become.

The Feminism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Judith A. Allen (University of Chicago Press)
This biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman re-evaluates her theories of sexuality and evolutionary analyses of androcentric – or male-dominated – culture, which informed Gilman’s contributions to the suffrage movement, the fight to abolish regulated prostitution and efforts to legalise birth control.

Arthur: The Legend, David Chauvel (Dalen Books)
Based on the historical sources of Celtic Britain such as the Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae, this graphic novel returns to the roots of the iconic story of Arthur who fought to return the Island of Britain to its rightful owners following the demise of Roman rule in Britain.

Second reader review: The Book of English Magic

Following Matthew Parker's review of Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean published on our Books Blog last week, here is our second reader review of The English Book of Magic.

by Matthew Kilburn

Like the English magical tradition which it seeks to represent, The Book of English Magic is a many-headed beast, and those heads betray English magic’s diverse origins. The purpose of the book is not always clear – it is a hydra with different faces and several distinct voices, and proves reluctant to sever any of those heads in order to let the remaining ones be heard any clearer.

Carr-Gomm and Heygate have compiled a book which includes a good deal of historical material, but it is more a manual than a history, and most of all a document where practitioners describe how magic flourishes in England today. The historical sections vary in quality. Some sections of the book make their debt to Ronald Hutton’s work clear, and others are rooted in the authors’ own research into and experience of modern pagan societies. There are some sections where connections are made on assumptions and traditions of largely modern origin, such as the presumed continuity between pre-Saxon and post-Saxon English magical practices, or the hoary old link between the Knights Templar and Freemasonry. Alongside these are contributions by modern witches and rune-makers, many of whom appeal for their authority to oral traditions of witchcraft allegedly passed on from generation to generation for centuries. The format of the book demands that these are treated uncritically, though some scepticism is at the least implied over the claims of significant figures in the recent history of English paganism, such as Gerald Gardner.

The Book of English Magic aspires to be a guidebook to the landscape of English magic. However, it is patchy when it comes to giving directions: those seeking the Neolithic burial chamber, Wayland’s Smithy, in the Vale of the White Horse would be well advised to wear sturdy walking shoes as it is a longer journey than the book suggests from the A420. Moreover, the photograph claiming to be of the ‘Eagle and Child’ in Oxford (page 76) is in reality of a pub in Staveley, in the Lake District, and not of the pub where the literary discussion group known as the Inklings, and whose members included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, used to meet. Given the ease of finding a picture of the ‘Eagle and Child’ (also referred to as the ‘Bird and Baby’) on the internet, this error in picture research is surprising and damages the authority of the book as a whole.

Such self-consciously Christian writers as Lewis and Tolkien might have blanched at being included in this book as patron saints of modern English paganism, but it is not difficult to see Lewis’s Narnia as a world of shamanic animal-spirits, while Tolkien’s love of the pre-Christian north was freely confessed. There was much in the work of both authors that could appear magical in a pagan sense to the non-religious or to those from other Christian traditions than the high Anglicanism adopted by Lewis or Tolkien’s Catholicism. One writer who has his own section in The Book of English Magic, the psychologist Brian Bates, has explicitly cited Tolkien as an influence on his fictionalised ‘recovery’ of Anglo-Saxon mysticism, The Way of Wyrd.

The book’s greatest success is perhaps as a monument to the hold magic has on the English imagination, in spite of and perhaps hidden by a surface scepticism. It features profiles of both well-known and more obscure 19th- and 20th-century occultists, from the founder of Theosophy, Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891), to the English author of The Magus, Francis Barrett. The role of neopagan spirituality in the modern environmental movement is celebrated and some myths are also exploded. Modern fantasy authors are referred to throughout. The book’s outward appearance owes much to Susanna Clarke’s collection of short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, and it is appropriate that its publisher is John Murray, a house which plays a facilitating role in her novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

The Book of English Magic is published in the wake of Ronald Hutton’s return to matters magical in his history of the Druids, Blood and Mistletoe. In his earlier book The Triumph of the Moon Hutton hailed ‘pagan witchcraft’ as the first religion ever to have originated and spread from England. With its ‘Things to Do’ sections reminiscent of 1970s children’s hobby books and its emphasis on a here-and-now England of everyday working wise women and dowsers retained by resource-hungry PLCs, The Book of English Magic both rejoices in human diversity and determinedly asserts the role of magic in the 21st-century English cultural mainstream. Its historiography is variable, but much of it is readable and its fragmented structure means that it is probably read most rewardingly by dipping in and out over a long period, rather than consumed in one sitting.

The Book of English Magic, Philip Carr-Gomm and Richard Heygate (John Murray)

Matthew Kilburn is an independent historian. A former research editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he is a regular contributor to its online edition. He has also contributed to The Cambridge Handel Encyclopaedia and Time And Relative Dissertations In Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who.

To coincide with the publication of his latest book Blood and Mistletoe in May this year, we featured a main article by Ronald Hutton in our May issue in which the author examines the modern history of the ancient order of the Druids. For further information, read Under the Spell of the Druids

New selection of books for review

Last month, we offered our readers, for the first time, the opportunity to review some of the latest history publications and to have their review published on the History Today Books Blog. Here is this month's selection.

To submit a review, please send an email to Kathryn Hadley (k.hadley@historytoday.com) specifying your choice of book. We will then send you the book with a one-month deadline to send us your review. Books will be sent on a first come first served basis. (Unfortunately, we are unable to send out books to the USA).

Latrinae et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World, Barry Hobson (Duckworth)

A study of toilets, both single (latrinae) and multi-seater (foricae), in the Roman empire from Ibera to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian’s Wall, which provides details of location, construction and decoration of toilets and considers questions of privacy, sewage and rubbish disposal, health issues, references in Latin literature, and graffiti.

The Humans Who Went Extinct, Clive Finlayson (Oxford University Press)

Underlining the interweaving of climate, ecology, geography and lifestyle in the fortunes of populations, this account of early human history argues that the destiny of the Neanderthals and the Moderns was, above all, sealed by ecological factors and contingencies.

Terrorism: A History, Randall D. Law (Polity Press)

A study of the history of terrorism from ancient Assyria to the post-9/11 War on Terror, which covers jihadism, the Israeli/Plaestinian conflict, the Klu Llux Klan as well as lesser known movements in Uruguay and Algeria, for example, and explores the changing understandings and definitions of terrorism through the ages.

Popular Culture in Ancient Rome, Jerry Toner (Polity Press)

A study of the everyday lives of the masses in the Roman world, including their social and family life, health, leisure and religious beliefs, and the ways in which their popular culture resisted the domination of the ruling elite.

The War Puzzle Revisited, John A. Vasquez (Cambridge University Press)

An updated version of Vasquez’s first scientific study of the causes of war of the last two decades, The War Puzzle, first published in 1993.

The German Myth of the East, Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius (Oxford University Press)

A study of German views of Eastern Europe from 1800 to the present day, which provides an insight into how the relationship between Germany and the East has influenced how Germans have defined themselves and their own national identity.

Our first Reader Review: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

Last month, we offered our readers, for the first time, the opportunity to review some of the latest history publications and to have their review published on the History Today Books Blog. We will offer a selection of books every month, which we will send out to readers in return for their reviews. A second selection of books will be published tomorrow. In the meantime, here is our first reader review of Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean.

by Matthew Parker

It was the most successful ‘pirate’ action in Caribbean history. In September 1628, Admiral Piet Heyn, leading a Dutch force of twenty-five ships, captured the entire Spanish silver fleet and carried back to Amsterdam a vast fortune in precious metals, pearls and rubies. Worth nearly a billion dollars in today’s currency, the awe-inspiring haul was enough to rescue bankrupt Holland and pay for the Dutch to invade Brazil once more. Furthermore, Heyn’s spectacular success would inspire generations of admirals, privateers, corsairs, buccaneers and pirates.

So why was Heyn successful when no one else could repeat the trick? According to Kritzler’s book Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, it was down to Moses Cohen Enriques. Cohen was a young boy when his family escaped the brutal Inquisition in Portugal and settled, along with many other Jews, in Amsterdam. There he became an important member of the Brotherhood, a secret international organisation of Jews fighting for revenge against Spain and the Inquisition. Cohen had been sent as a spy to Seville, where, Kritzler writes, ‘he soon acquired information that … it made more sense to attack at sea … rather than mount a land invasion to capture the silver mountain.’ He also, crucially, found out the time and route of the forthcoming silver fleet. Cohen then joined up with Heyn and took part in the capture of the treasure.

So was Cohen, however interesting his story, really a ‘Jewish Pirate of the Caribbean’? Kritzler’s eye-catching title sometimes feels as if it belongs to a slightly different, and certainly less rewarding book. While plenty of daring adventures are chronicled with commendable pace and a great eye for detail, Kritzler’s book is much more than that. It is a panorama of Jewish history, tracing - in Europe and Africa as well as the New World - the diaspora caused by the expulsions, torturing and killings that started in Spain at the end of the fifteenth century. The background to this fascinating time is handled with immense skill and knowledge, while at every turn, the crucial involvement of the ‘People of the Book’ in the major events of the time is emphasised.

Thus we learn how Jews, especially skilled in cartography, accompanied both Da Gama and Columbus on their historic voyages of discovery (Columbus, Kritzler argues, had a hidden agenda: to find a home for the Jews in the New World). A ‘probable’ Jew discovered California, while another marched with Cortés. In a succession of vivid portraits, we meet Sinan, who led a Jewish privateer force in the Mediterranean and became an Ottoman naval commander; Diego Diaz Querido, a slave trader who carried secret messages for the Brotherhood; and Samuel Palache, a ‘pirate rabbi’ who sent a flotilla of privateers to operate against Spanish shipping in the Mediterranean under the flag of Morocco while at the same time serving as the rabbi of the first synagogue in Holland. According to Kritzler, he took his own kosher chef on board his ‘pirate’ ship. It was the extraordinary figure of Rabbi Palache, says Kritzer, who inspired the likes of Moses Cohen Enriques to ‘live as he dreamed.’

The author also writes fascinatingly about the Jewish community in Amsterdam. When the Iberian ‘Conversos’ – Jews forced to convert to Catholicism – found a degree of religious freedom in Amsterdam and ‘came out’ as Jews, many of them had little idea what this meant nor any knowledge of the Talmud. Kritzler explores the confusion in the community as the leaders of the congregation tried to re-educate their people about Judaic Law, ushering in a time of fierce religious conformity and ‘smothering laws.’ He tells the story of a new arrival from Portugal who was drummed out of the congregation for refusing these new strictures, and eventually committed suicide. In Kritzler’s words:

‘It is one of history’s anomalies that their religious leaders, themselves survivors of religious fanaticism, should have formed their own Inquisitional tribunal, rather than show tolerance to the new Jews.’

Thus many still headed for the New World in search of genuine religious freedom (as well as commercial opportunity), often working with the Dutch against the fading power of Spain. Moses Cohen Enriques was amongst the leaders of the successful Dutch invasion of Brazil, where for a generation thereafter, Jewish planters and merchants would make fortunes from the sugar trade.

Kritzler’s first love, however, is the history of Jamaica, where he now lives. According to his researches, fearing the imminent arrival of the Inquisition, clandestine Jews amongst the island’s converso ‘Portugals’ gave Cromwell’s government intelligence and encouragement to invade, while keeping warnings of the coming armada from the Spanish governor. It was two of the Jewish ‘Portugals’ who, against the wishes of the Roman Catholic Spaniards, then surrendered the island to the English.

While casting new light on familiar stories, this focus on the role of one very small group inevitably leads to some anomalies and omissions. But to complain about this would be to miss the point of the book, which is unashamedly partisan and celebratory of the survival skills, verve and energy of the Jewish emigrants, traders, schemers, and, yes, even pirates. By taking on and defeating their oppressors, the ‘pirates’, writes Kritzler, were heroes who ‘would win most of the freedoms that Jews in the West enjoy today.’

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, Edward Kritzler (JR Books)

Matthew Parker is the author of Hell’s Gorge: The Battle to Build the Panama Canal. He is currently working on a new history of the rise and fall of the West Indian sugar empire for publication in 2011. His website can be found at www.matthewparker.co.uk

This week's new books

The Humans Who Went Extinct, Clive Finlayson (Oxford University Press)
Underlining the interweaving of climate, ecology, geography and lifestyle in the fortunes of populations, this account of early human history argues that the destiny of the Neanderthals and the Moderns was, above all, sealed by ecological factors and contingencies.

The House of Borgia, Christopher Hibbert (Constable)
This biography of the Borgias explores the dynasty’s rise from its Spanish roots to its occupation of the highest positions in Renaissance society, bringing to life both the family and the world of Rome during the Italian Renaissance.

Captain Cook Was Here, Maria Nugent (Cambridge University Press)
An account of the original encounter on land between British mariners and the first Australians and its enduring impact on Australian art, history and folklore, following Cook’s arrival on the east coast of New Holland in late April of 1770.

Kevin McCloud’s Grand Tour of Europe, Kevin McCloud (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Kevin McCloud’s account of his ‘Grand Tour’ through France, Italy, Greece and Switzerland following in the footsteps of the wealthy young Britons who travelled to the continent from the 17th to the early 19th centuries in search of culture and entertainment.

New Paperbacks

Latrinae et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World, Barry Hobson (Duckworth)
A study of toilets, both single (latrinae) and multi-seater (foricae), in the Roman empire from Ibera to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian’s Wall, which provides details of location, construction and decoration of toilets and considers questions of privacy, sewage and rubbish disposal, health issues, references in Latin literature, and graffiti.



Giordano Bruno, Ingrid D. Rowland (The University of Chicago Press)
A biography of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), which places the philosopher/ heretic in the context of 16th-century Europe, where every certainty of religion and philosophy had been called into question, and reveals how he defended his ideas until the end when he was burned at the stake as a heretic in Rome.



SOE: The Scientific Secrets, Frederic Boyce and Douglas Everett (The History Press)
Douglas Everett was a scientist who served in the SOE. He provides his insider knowledge to present an account of the way in which SOE inventors worked and the tools, equipment and techniques that allowed the organisation to assist the wartime resistance to the enemy in occupied countries.



Terrorism: A History, Randall D. Law (Polity Press)
A study of the history of terrorism from ancient Assyria to the post-9/11 War on Terror, which covers jihadism, the Israeli/Plaestinian conflict, the Klu Llux Klan as well as lesser known movements in Uruguay and Algeria, for example, and explores the changing understandings and definitions of terrorism through the ages.

This week's new books

Terra: Tales of the Earth, Richard Hamblyn (Picador)
Through four case studies – the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the European weather panics of 1783, the eruption of Krakatau in 1883 and the Hilo tsunami of 1946 – the author paints a picture of these turbulent events, describing their immediate human consequences and the longer-term social and scientific implications.


The Fossil Hunter, Shelley Emling (Palgrave Macmillan)
The story of Mary Anning who, in 1811, discovered the first dinosaur skeleton at the age of twelve. At a time when women were excluded from science and it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct, her discovery marked the birth of paleontology and helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.


The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc, Larissa Juliet Taylor (Yale University Press)
An account of the life of Joan of Arc, from her early years to the myths and legends that abound about her today, which portrays her as a self-confident, charismatic and determined figure, whose force of will terrified the English soldiers and leaders.


We Were Young and at War, Sarah Wallis and Svetlana Palmer (HarperCollins)
Based on their diaries and letters published together for the first time, the first-hand stories of sixteen British, French, American, Japanese, Polish, German and Russian teenage boys and girls who grew up during the Second World War.

Wednesday Paperbacks

Popular Culture in Ancient Rome, Jerry Toner (Polity Press)
A study of the everyday lives of the masses in the Roman world, including their social and family life, health, leisure and religious beliefs, and the ways in which their popular culture resisted the domination of the ruling elite.



The Templars: History and Myth, Michael Haag (Profile Books)
The first history of the Templars since the Vatican’s publication of the Chinon parchment in 2007, from the order’s origins in the mysteries of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem through to the 19th-century development of the Freemasons.



The War Puzzle Revisited, John A. Vasquez (Cambridge University Press)
An updated version of Vasquez’s first scientific study of the causes of war of the last two decades, The War Puzzle, first published in 1993.



A Political History of the USA, Bruce Kuklick (Palgrave Macmillan)
An account of America’s political, cultural and religious history from European contact to the election of Barack Obama.

This week's new books

Pyrrhus of Epirus, Jeff Champion (Pen & Sword)
A biography of Pyrrhus of Epirus, a second cousin of Alexander the Great, born into the royal house of Epirus in northwest Greece. Pyrrhus was rated by Hannibal as a better general than himself and was the first Hellenistic king to fight against the Roman legions, when he was invited, in 281 BC, to defend the southern Italian states against the Roman Republic.

The White Queen, Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster)
The first in the new series, The Cousins’ War, The White Queen is set in amid the tumult of the Wars of the Roses and tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville of the House of Lancaster, who marries in secret the reigning king Edward VI of the family of the white rose, the House of York.

Mercenaries and their Masters, Michael Mallett (Pen & Sword)
A new edition of Michael Mallett’s of study of warfare in Renaissance Italy, first published in Britain in 1974. Set in the context of the Italian society of the time, Mallett’s account of the age of the condottieri and of the soldiers who fought under them provides an insight into the way in which war was organised and practised in the Renaissance world.

The German Myth of the East, Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius (Oxford University Press)
A study of German views of Eastern Europe from 1800 to the present day, which provides an insight into how the relationship between Germany and the East has influenced how Germans have defined themselves and their own national identity.

First to Fight

by Kathryn Hadley

First to Fight was released yesterday, September 1st 2009, 70 years after the German invasion of Poland. The new book is part of a project to promote the recognition of the role of the Polish armed forces in Britain’s war effort. Based on the personal stories of Poles who fought on various fronts, in the air, on the land and at sea, it recalls Poland’s six-year struggle against the Nazi forces. It also features a number of texts which are published for the first time, including the English translation of Stalin’s signed order to execute 14,736 of the Polish Officer Corps at Katyn Forest in 1940. Contributors to the book and supporters of the campaign include leading British statesmen and military leaders such as Baroness Thatcher, General The Lord Guthrie, former chief of the Defence Staff, Winston S. Churchill MP, grandson of the wartime Prime Minister, and Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s official biographer.

This week's new books

Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, Robert M. Edsel (Preface Publishing)
From D-Day to VE-Day, 65 members of the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives section (MFAA) of the Allied armed forces fought to preserve Europe and the world’s cultural heritage. This is the story of eight of these men in the forward operating theatre and their struggle to save hundreds of damaged buildings and find millions of cultural items before they were destroyed by the Nazis.

Titian: The Last Days, Mark Hudson (Bloomsbury)
A history of Titian and his work which explores the physical and spiritual landscape of his last paintings, many of which he never completed, and considers the artist’s relationship with his artistic rivals, his patrons and his troubled dealings with his own family.

Community and identity: The making of modern Gibraltar since 1704, Stephen Constantine (Manchester University Press)
A study of the history of Gibraltar following its military conquest in 1704, which focuses on the civilian population of the British colony and examines how the demographic, economic, administrative and political history of Gibraltar accounts for the construction of a distinctive ‘Gibraltarian’ identity.

The Guernsey Merchants and their world, Gregory Stevens Cox (Toucan Press, Guernsey)
A study of 18th-century Guernsey merchants, which included indigenous aristocrats, Huguenot refugees and economic migrants, which places the merchants in their context and considers the trade, cargoes, shipping, networks and the geography of their mercantile world.