Last books for June!

Bitter Spring: A Life of Ignazio Silone, Stanislao G. Pugliese (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
A biography of Ignazio Silone (1900-78), a founding member of the Italian Communist Party and the author of Fontamara, the most widely translated work of anti-fascism in the 1930s which he wrote following his expulsion from the PCI.

Enemies and Familiars: Slavery and Mastery in Fifteenth-Century Valencia, Debra Blumenthal (Cornell University Press)
A study of the social and human dimensions of slavery in the religiously and ethnically pluralistic society of the city of Valencia in the late 15th century, which charts the varied experiences and daily lives of Muslim, Eastern and black Africans from capture to freedom.

Replenishing the Earth, James Belich (Oxford University Press)
A study of the anglophone ‘settler boom’ in North America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand between the early 19th and 20th centuries, which considers the sources of its success and how it laid the basis of British and American power in the 19th and 20th centuries.

American Heroes, Edmund S. Morgan (Norton)
American Heroes celebrates the lives and principles of ordinary Americans and considers the legacy of prominent colonial leaders such as William Penn, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, challenging traditional notions of American individuality and idealism.

Fighting for Football, George Myerson (Aurum)
A biography of the forgotten sporting hero and one of British football’s leading figures, Tim Coleman, who spent the finest years of his footballing life with Arsenal, led the first players’ strike, joined up with the Footballers’ Battalion and received the Military Medal for bravery.

Theatreland: A journey through the heart of London’s theatre, Paul Ibell (Continuum)
A history of the London stage, from Shakespeare’s bankside playhouses to today’s West End, and a study of the current state of London’s theatre district, which reveals the considerable debt which today’s theatre owes to the artistic achievements of the past.

This week's new books!

Slaves to Sweetness: British and Caribbean Literatures of Sugar, Carl Plasa (Liverpool University Press)
An account of the historical transformations which sugar’s image has undergone in a series of literary texts, from the mid-1760s, when the transatlantic trade was at its height, to the postcolonial era, in which sugar has been revisited by a variety of expatriate black Caribbean writers.

Slavery: Real people and their stories of enslavement, Reg Grant (Dorling Kindersley)
An illustrated book which combines historical fact with personal testimonies to chart the history of slavery from its roots in ancient times to the persistence of human trafficking in today’s society.

The Woman Who Saved the Children, Claire Mulley (Oneworld)
To mark the 90th anniversary of the charity Save the Children and the 20th anniversary of the UN convention on the Rights of the Child, a biography of Eglantyne Jebb, co-founder of the charity, who dedicated her life to children’s welfare and human rights and revolutionised the way the world treats children.

The Short Oxford History of Germany: Weimar Germany, Anthony McElligott (Oxford University Press)
An introduction to Weimar Germany, from Germany’s defeat in the First World War to the coming of power of Hitler in 1933, which challenges preconceived ideas of the republic and sheds new light on areas such as Jewish life, gender, culture and the role of military ideas in reshaping society after the First World War.

Mid-June Books!

The Essential Lincoln, ed. Orville Vernon Burton (Hill and Wang)
To mark the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, a collection of the president’s defining speeches, public and private correspondence and personal notations, from his earliest writings, aged 23, in New Salem to his last public address from the White House balcony.

Cardinal Wolsey: A Life in Renaissance Europe, Stella Fletcher (Continuum)
A biography of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, which reveals his impact on both Church and State affairs as Lord Chancellor and, drawing on the political, ecclesiastical and cultural history of the Renaissance period, sets his career in wider European contexts including those of the Italian Wars, reform of the Church and the revival of Antiquity.

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe, Nancy Goldstone (Phoenix)
The interwoven stories of the four Provencal sisters, Eleanor, Marguerite, Sanchia and Beatrice, who rose to become queens of England, France, Germany and Sicily, which offer an insight into the medieval era of chivalry, crusades, poetry, knights and monarchs.

Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend, David Blow (I.B. Tauris)
The first biography, in English, of the Persian king, which considers how Shah Abbas transformed the country from one on the verge of disintegration and foreign partition, when he assumed power in 1587, to a thriving state ready to face the emerging modern world.

This Week's New Books!

Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind, Sean Longden (Constable)
The untold story of the 68,111 men who did not make the return journey across the channel during the evacuation of Dunkirk in June 1940: the 51st Highland Division who continued to fight after the boats had sailed, the men who were left to their own devices to survive in occupied France and those who were captured and marched to PoW camps in Germany.



Hell’s Cartel, Diarmuid Jeffreys (Bloomsbury)
An account of the pact between the Third Reich and IG Farben, the cartel formed, in 1925, by six of Germany’s leading chemical companies to protect their business from increasing international competition, which reveals the story of the original military-industrial complex.



Richard III and the Death of Chivalry, David Hipshon (The History Press)
An account of the reign of Richard III, which challenges the traditional view that his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 was due to a loss of support for him after his usurpation of the throne.



Blood in the Forum: The Struggle for the Roman Republic, Pamela Marin (Continuum)
The story of the last century of the Roman Republic, which considers the shifting alliances and betrayals that ultimately led to the assassination of Caesar and reveals the backdrop to the rise of Octavian Augustus.

New Books for June!

Voyage of the Damned, Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts (JR Books)
A new edition of Voyage of the Damned published to mark the 70th anniversary of the voyage of SS St Louis, which set sail from Hamburg in May 1939 carrying 937 Jews seeking asylum from Nazi persecution. The ship was, however, a pawn of Nazi propaganda and the novel charts the day-to-day struggle for survival of the refugees on board.



Sophie Scholl, Frank McDonough (The History Press)
A biography of Sophie Scholl, one of the members of the underground German protest movement against Hitler’s rule, The White Rose, which examines her legacy of heroism in Germany and shows that not all Germans blindly followed the Nazi regime.



Alger Hiss and the Battle for History, Susan Jacoby (Yale University Press)
An investigation of the political and intellectual struggle over the Alger Hiss case, from 1948 to the present post-Cold War age, which considers the reasons why the Cold War controversy has turned into a permanent battle over the definition and ownership of American values.



The Last Witch of Langenburg, Thomas Robisheaux (Norton)
The story of the accusations, panic and witch trials, which were sparked by the death of Anna Fessler, on the night of Shrove Tuesday in the German village of Langenburg in 1672.