The Best History Books 2018
From the Thirty Years War to the ancient civilisation of Iran, from Anglo-American rivalries in the desert to the persecution of indigenous peoples, historians select their favourite books of the past year.
Edith Hall
Biography is not usually my favourite route into history, but David W. Blight’s Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (Simon and Schuster) is an exception. Douglass is one of the most contested figures in American history. This is his first comprehensive biography for more than 30 years and makes use of substantial new source material. Blight, who knows more about his subject than anyone else alive, having edited Douglass’ own autobiographies (he published three), writes stylishly. But Douglass was a troubled figure, a true ‘prophet of freedom’, the sheer power of whose passions and intellect drove him long after achieving his own liberty to continue the struggle for civil rights. Blight brings to his study a lucid objectivity which is refreshing given the hagiographic tone of much that has been written about this man. It partners well with Sarah Kinkel’s Disciplining the Empire: Politics, Governance, and the Rise of the British Navy (Harvard), which brilliantly outlines the competition for power and authority across the British class system.
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