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New history books in November 2023

by Anthony Webb, 1 December 2023

Fourteen books published in November that meet my exacting criteria (of being history, not too academic, and not too niche or military). It looks like a fairly traditional range of topics: Weimar Germany, Russian revolution, French revolution, a bit of Rome - but a few books with less familiar themes too.

Click the book covers to see a zoomed in image and links to Amazon if you like to buy your books there.

Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime That Captivated a Nation
The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case
The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives
The Gift: How Objects of Prestige Shaped the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism
Julian: Rome's Last Pagan Emperor
The Kings of Algiers: How Two Jewish Families Shaped the Mediterranean World During the Napoleonic Wars and Beyond
Germany 1923: Hyperinflation, Hitler's Putsch, and Democracy in Crisis
The Children of Athena: Greek Writers and Thinkers in the Age of Rome, 150 BC- AD 400
A Nasty Little War: The Western Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution
Blood on the Snow: The Russian Revolution 1914-1924
Battle for the Island Kingdom: The Struggle for England's Destiny 1000-1066
A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes
The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748–1789
Alexandria: The City that Changed the World
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One or two I would like to get for Christmas are:

  • The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748–1789, by Robert Darnton - looking at how the idea of revolution became thinkable in Paris in the decades leading up to 1789, with novel mass media playing a key role.

  • The Gift: How Objects of Prestige Shaped the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism, by Ana Lucia Araujo - telling the story of slavey and subjegation through luxury gifts. This seems like a different and interesting way into the subject.

  • Battle for the Island Kingdom: The Struggle for England's Destiny 1000-1066, by Don Hollway - I always struggle to remember just how it was that the Norwegians arrived, saw and conquered and then somehow got replaced by some Anglo-Saxons kings. This book looks like an entertaining refresher.

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