I'm off on holiday for a couple of weeks now so posting this round-up a few days before month end - but don't worry I will add on any July history book stragglers into the August post!
With that said, it's an attractive looking set of ten books covering a wide range of subjects: from Elizabethan spies, Mughal royalty, and Crusading delinquents... a few more notes on the books that I was most intrigued by below.
Click the book covers to see a zoomed in image and links to Amazon if you like to buy your books there.
A few that I have my eye on:
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Crusader Criminals: The Knights Who Went Rogue in the Holy Land, by Steve Tibble. At first glance I thought this was one of those auto-generated books that flood the Amazon catalogue and give themselves away by their cookie-cut covers. At second glance I realised this was an interesting new take on the crusader story focusing on the idea that the crusades were from one perspective (i.e. the receiving end) a swarm of violent bigoted young men decamping to the Eastern Mediterranean.
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The History of Ideas: Equality, Justice and Revolution, by David Runciman. Runciman is a big hitter in the academic and literary world, with plenty of experience explaining stuff to students and the public, so this book should be decent!
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Empire's Son, Empire's Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah, Nile Green. This book has already attracted some ire in its Amazon reviews so clearly people still care a lot about the subject and the people involved. Recounting the tale of two people who (I think) had roots in Afghanistan, and who may or may not have hoodwinked a lot of people in the West.
