New reviews: Somerset, US politics, Francis I and concentration camps

Jan 14, 2016

We start this week with the latest volume from the Victoria County History, The History of the County of Somerset. Volume XI: Queen Camel and the Cadburys, edited by Mary Siraut. Michael Hicks and the editors discuss a comprehensive, indispensable, and almost...

New reviews: Irish Revolution, Jewish artists, cotton and Pepys

Jan 7, 2016

Happy New Year! We start 2016 with Remembering the Irish Revolution: Dissent, Culture, and Nationalism in the Irish Free State by Frances Flanagan. Sean Ledwith and the author discuss a thoughtful and scholarly contribution to an understanding of a generation that...

New reviews: Colonial Bengal, medieval chronicles, French Revolution, God and Thatcher

Dec 10, 2015

We begin this week with Recasting the Region: Language, Culture and Islam in Colonial Bengal by Neilesh Bose. Markus Daechsel and the author discuss an encyclopedic and important study (no. 1871, with response here). Then we turn to Benjamin Pohl’s Dudo of St...

Revealing local history: a follow up

Dec 4, 2015

On 21 November, we held two simultaneous Wikipedia edit-a-thons in London and Leicester as part of the Being Human Festival. We did a lot of promotion of these events beforehand so we thought we should tell you how they went.  An edit-a-thon is an event where editors...

New reviews: Scottish pubs, Missouri Crisis, medieval city politics and history of science

Dec 3, 2015

We start with the aforementioned History of Drinking: The Scottish Pub Since 1700 by Anthony Cooke, as Callum Brown and the author discuss a well-written account of the commerce, sociability and drinking communities of the country (no. 1867, with response here). Next...

New reviews: holy wars, history of knowledge, Soviet spies and Gibbon

Nov 26, 2015

We start this week with Holy War, Martyrdom and Terror: Christianity, Violence and the West by Phillipe Buc, as Cecilia Gaposchkin and the author debate an enormously ambitious book (no. 1863, with response here). Then we have another in our occasional podcast series,...