Reviews

The question of the responsibility of the ‘everyman’ and ‘everywoman’ remains a pressing one in Heimat: A German Family Album by Nora Krug.

On the women who made imperial Rome.

Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present by Jonathan L. Lee is a history fit from the Taliban.

These Truths: a History of the United States by Jill Lepore is a reminder of how tenaciously previous generations have clung to the view that the country is the ‘last, best hope of earth’.

Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words by Jeremy Mynott explores the role birds played in intellectual, practical, and emotional lives.

The Common Freedom of the People: John Lilburne & the English Revolution by Michael Braddick charts his remarkable rise.

A professionally organised covert industry satisfied the public’s demand for illicit books in the years before the French Revolution.

A master historian’s definitive study of one of the most astonishing and influential careers in English history.

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.

A readable history of the Portuguese capital emphasises the modern at the expense of the city’s deeper past.