Reviews

Books of the Year 2024: Part 1

Imperialism and India, spies and seafarers, paganism and the polis: the first 12 of 25 historians choose their favourite new history books of 2024.

The extended Taft family with US president William H. Taft, 18 June 1918. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

‘The Tafts’ by George W. Liebmann review

In The Tafts, George W. Liebmann celebrates an American political dynasty dedicated to public service. Why are they often overlooked?

Diogenes in the Book of Good Morals, by Jacques le Grant, 15th century. Musée Condé, Chantilly/Bridgeman Images.

‘The Green Ages’ by Annette Kehnel review

Can The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability by Annette Kehnel find anything worth recycling in medieval modes of living?

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, from the Regensburg Pentateuch, c.1300. Israel Museum, Jerusalem/The Ridgefield Foundation, New York, in memory of Henry J. and Erna D. Leir/Bridgeman Images.

‘Who Really Wrote the Bible’ by William M. Schniedewind review

Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes by William M. Schniedewind asks what authorship meant to the hidden hands behind the Old Testament.

A folding screen showing an indigenous wedding in Mexico, c. 1660-90. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘Patria’ by Laurence Blair review

In Patria: Lost Countries of South America, Laurence Blair explores nine nations, dissolved or imagined, and what they tell us about Latin America.

A bronze head of Ptolemy II or III, c. 246-222 BC. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Last Dynasty’ and ‘The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome’ review

Can The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra and The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome: A History of the Ptolemies fashion a finale for the pharaohs?

People gather to read a special edition of the Nürnberger newspaper reporting the sentences handed down by the International Military Tribunal, 1 October 1946. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.

‘The Writers’ Castle’ by Uwe Neumahr review

In The Writers’ Castle: Reporting History at Nuremberg, Uwe Neumahr discovers that it wasn’t just the men in the dock who had scandalous social lives and hidden agendas.

Reason, Righteousness and Sincerity teaching some women, c. 1425-50. KB, National Library of the Netherlands. Public Domain.

‘Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife’ and ‘God’s Own Gentlewoman’ review

Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women and God’s Own Gentlewoman bring the real world of medieval women out of the margins.

A police officer checks the ID of three members of the Ku Klux Klan in Panorama City, California, 18 September 1966. University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections (CC BY 4.0).

‘A Great Disorder’ by Richard Slotkin review

In A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America, Richard Slotkin attempts to untangle the stories that the US tells itself about race, colonialism and the Civil War. Is it a lost cause?

The assasination of George Villiers, the duke of Buckingham, and favourite to King James IV and I, by Romeyn de Hooghe, 1699. Herzog August Library. Public Domain.

‘The Scapegoat’ by Lucy Hughes-Hallett review

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett picks through the fragments of George Villiers, James VI & I’s favourite mistake.