12 to add to the pile from last month with a common theme of colonial conflict - from Yale and Slavery, encounters between indigenous Australian people and the British, the Spice Trade, and the direct connections between slavery and English country estates. A few more thoughts on particular books below...
Click the book covers to see a zoomed in image and links to Amazon if you like to buy your books there.
Three that I thought were particularly interesting are:
-
Bennelong and Phillip: A Relationship Unravelled, by Kate Fullagar. Exploring these two protagonists who seem to be well known in Australia (one a local, the other British) but unknown to me, as indeed is much of Australia's history except in very broad outline.
-
In the Service of the Shogun: The Real Story of William Adams, by Frederik Cryns. I read Shogun by James Clavell a couple of months ago, which is based on the story of William Adams. I thought it was an amazing book (and amazingly long) but I thought that it must be hamming up the Japanese nobility... maybe In the Service of the Shogun will set the story straight?
-
The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Destruction of the Old Ottoman World, by Eugene Rogan. Something else I don't know anything about but the blurb has convinced me that I should know more...
