New books!

Bannockburn, 1314: A New History, Chris Brown (The History Press)
A history of the battle of Bannockburn in June 1314, which recreates the campaign and battle from the perspectives of both the Scots and the English and reconsiders the terrain where the battle was fought, providing a reassessment of the Scottish victory against the troops of Edward II.

Cultures of Violence, Ivan Evans (Manchester University Press)
An insight into the inherent violence of race relations in South Africa and the American South. By contrasting the ‘lynch culture’ of the South to the ‘bureaucratic culture of violence’ in South Africa, the book examines the logic of the racial state in the two contexts.

The Atmosphere of Heaven, Mike Jay (Yale University Press)
The story of Dr Beddoes and his fellow researchers at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol who discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, which reveals the influence of the Institution on the modern drug culture, attitudes towards objective and subjective knowledge, the development of anaesthetic surgery and the birth of the Romantic movement.

The Devil’s Workshop, Adolf Burger (Frontline Books)
A history of the world’s largest counterfeiting operation told by one of the last surviving witnesses, Adolf Burger, who, as an inmate of various concentration camps, was forced to forge British and American currency and other documents as part of the Nazi war effort.

New Books!

Attack on London, Jonathan Oates (Pen & Sword)
From Roman times to the present day, an account of some of the natural and man-made threats that Londoners have faced, such as Jack Cade’s Rebellion and the Gordon Riots, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, the Blitz and terrorist bombings, which reveals how they coped and their changing attitudes over the centuries.

Ernest Mandel, Jan Willem Stutje (Verso)
A biography of Ernest Mandel (1923-1975), one of the most prominent anti-Stalinist Marxists of the last century and a key leader of the Fourth International, which charts his development, shaped by his experiences in the Second World War, and recounts his interactions with scholars, including Sartre and Ernst Bloch, and comrades in arms such as Che Guevara.

1809: Between Hope and History, Hugh Gault (Gretton Books)
An account of the political, military economic and social events in Britain in 1809, which provides a starting point for the larger transformation of British society, the industrial and social revolution and Britain’s assumption of a new place in the world that were to follow.

The Tudor Queens of England, David Loades (Continuum)
A study of the daily lives and responsibilities of the Tudor Queens of England, from Elizabeth of York, the wife of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, through to Elizabeth I, which notably compares the duties of queen consorts with those of ruling queens.

This week's new books!

Bigfoot: The Life and Tines of a Legend, Joshua Blu Buhs (University of Chicago Press)
A cultural history of Bigfoot, America’s premier homegrown monster, which explores the myths, mysteries and pseudoscience surrounding the creature, from the nineteenth century, to the late 1950s when Bigfoot emerged as a modern media marvel, to the 21st century.

British Imperialism in Cyprus, 1878-1915, Andrekos Varnava (Manchester University Press)
An account of the early British period in Cyprus, which challenges the view that British imperial policy was based primarily or exclusively on strategic-military considerations and explores the tensions underlying British imperialism in Cyprus.

Redcoats Against Napoleon, Carole Divall (Pen & Sword)
From the Siege of Toulon in 1793 to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the story of the 30th Regiment of the Line, one of the ignored hitherto groups of fighting men that participated in the military struggle against the French Armies of the Revolution and Napoleon, which provides an insight into the life of ordinary British soldiers two centuries ago.

Evelyn Sharp, Rebel Woman, 1869-1955, Angela V. John (Manchester University Press)
The first biography of the writer, journalist and leading suffragette, Evelyn Sharp, which also considers the shifting opportunities faced by Victorian women who survived into the mid-twentieth century.

New books for May!

Human Zoos: Science and Spectacle in the Age of Empire, eds. Pascal Blanchard, Nicolas Bancel, Gilles Boetsch, Eric Deroo, Sandrine Lemaire and Charles Forsdick (Liverpool University Press)
Based on the best-selling French volume Zoos Humains, Human Zoos considers the ‘spectacularization’ of the Other, when ‘exotic’ individuals were placed alongside wild beasts and presented behind bars in ‘anthropological’ exhibitions.



Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery, Steve Nicholls (University of Chicago Press)
A description of North America at the time of its discovery against the backdrop of the story of the continent’s colonisation, which also introduces the reader to some of the characters who have chronicled the changing landscape, from pre-Revolutionary era settlers to contemporary researchers.

Copernicus’ Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began, Jack Repcheck (JR Books)
A biography of Copernicus, the radical scientist of the early Renaissance who proclaimed that the Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.



The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Francis Grose (Amberley)
This unabridged reproduction of Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally published in numerous editions from the 1790s to the 1820s, provides an insight the slang and vernacular language of the time.