The Mexican Wars for Independence

Timothy J. Henderson (Hill and Wang)

An account of the Mexican Wars of Independence (1810-1821), a battle for social and political reform rather than mere political independence, which traces the major leaders and conflicts and explores the complicated meaning of independence for Mexico’s past and present.

San Martin: Argentine Soldier, American Hero

John Lynch (Yale University Press)

A biography of Jose de San Martin, which sheds new light on one of the great leaders in the liberation of Chile and Peru and on the story of Spanish America’s revolutionary wars.

The Pope’s Legion

The Pope’s Legion: The Multinational Fighting Force that Defended the Vatican
Charles A. Coulombe
(Palgrave Macmillan)

The story of the Papal Zouaves, a band of 20,000 Catholics, from France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Austria, who were summoned by the Pope in the 19th century to defend the Vatican City from attack, in the midst of the Italian Wars of the Risorgimento.

Giants

John Stauffer
Little Brown

A dual-biography of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, which describes the transformations in the lives of the two men and their personal and political struggles at a time of social and cultural change, when men rejected the status quo and embraced new ideas of personal liberty.

The Young Charles Darwin

Keith Thomson (Yale University Press)

An account of the young naturalist’s formative years and of the birth and maturing of his theory, which considers the range of influences and ideas, the mentors and rivals, and the formal and informal education that shaped Charles Darwin and prepared him for his career of scientific achievement.

For All the Tea in China: espionage, empire and the secret formula for the world’s favourite drink

Sarah Rose (Hutchinson)

The story of subterfuge, espionage and Robert Fortune, who, in 1848, was engaged by the East India Company to make a clandestine trip to China to uncover the secrets of Chinese tea in order to enable the East India Company to establish its own plantations in the Himalayas of British India.

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 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.

Vicarious Vagrants: Incognito Social Explorers and the Homeless in England, 1860-1910

ed. Mark Freeman & Gillian Nelson (The True Bill Press)

A collection of personal testimonies of incognito investigations of vagrancy written in the heyday of the incognito social explorer at the end of the nineteenth century, when men and women travelled in disguise among the poor in England and published accounts of their experiences.

In Love & War: The Lives of General Sir Harry & Lady Smith

David Rooney & Michael Scott

Pen & Sword

The story of the marriage between Captain Harry Smith and Juana, his aristocratic Spanish bride, who he met in 1812 in the aftermath of the capture of Badajoz by Wellington’s forces, and their imperial campaigns.

Peninsular Eyewitnesses: The Experience of War in Spain and Portugal 1808-1813

Charles Esdaile
Pen & Sword

The story of the British struggle against Napoleon in the Peninsula told through memoirs, letters and eyewitness testimony, which provides an inside view of military affairs, the guerrilla war and the impact of the fighting on the countryside and in the towns and cities.

Messenger of Death: Capt Nolan & the Charge of the Light Brigade

David Buttery
Pen & Sword

A biography of the man remembered as the captain who ordered the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, which provides a reassessment of the life of Captain Louis Nolan and his role in the Charge.

Gladstone: God and Politics, Richard Shannon (Continuum)

A study of Gladstone, which provides an account of his political career, at the centre of which is placed his intense religious faith and desire to realise God’s purposes.

A Companion to the Anglo-Zulu War, Ian Knight (Pen & Sword)

A reference guide to the Anglo-Zulu War, a defining moment in British imperial history, which provides summaries of the issues, events, armies and individuals involved and examines the impact of the war on popular culture.