Novedades del último mes en libros de Historia de los países de Europa

Democracies are fragile Freedoms that seem secure can be lost Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic

A Times Best Art Book of the Year 2024 A riot of a book Country Life s Books of the Year 2024 The modern art market was born on a single night On 15 October 1958 Sotheby s of Bond Street staged an event sale of Impressionist paintings from the collection of an American banker Erwin Goldschmidt three Manets two Cezannes one Van Gogh and a Renoir Movie stars and other celebrities attended in black tie and saw the seven lots go for 781 000 at the time the highest price for a single art sale Overnight London became the world centre of the art market and Sotheby s an international auction house The event signalled a shift in power from dealers to auctioneers and pointed the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years In this climate Sotheby s and Christie s became a great business duopoly as aggressive dominant and competitive in the field of art sales as Pepsi and Coca Cola were in soft drinks The resulting expansion of the market was accompanied by rocketing prices colourful scandals and legal dramas Over the decades London transformed itself from a place of old master sales to a revitalised centre of contemporary art a process crowned by the opening of Tate Modern in 2000 James Stourton tells the story

A new and radically original account of the longest military conflict in European history which challenges the conventional periodisation of the Hundred Years War to consider a much longer period of Anglo French conflict Michael Livingston argues that the English lens through which the war has been viewed has led historians to define it in terms of English interests most famously the claim of the English Plantagenet king Edward III to be the rightful king of France and that the events collectively labelled the Hundred Years War are best seen as a sequence of steps in France s struggle to define itself as a nation For much of the period France s primary rival was indeed England But it was by no means the only combatant Burgundy stood in its way too as did Brittany Flanders Navarre and other rival powers Viewing France as the primary engine driving the war leads Livingston to consider a much longer timespan starting with the Anglo French Pirate War of 1292 which swiftly escalated into a fight over England s feudal possessions in Gascony and ending with the marriage of Charles VIII of France to Anne of Brittany by which Brittany was subsumed into the French realm

Moore is wickedly charming the naughty uncle you want to be sat beside at the dinner table Daily Telegraph Too often history focuses on the tales of kings or those often men who were given the credit for shaping our stories Yet what fascinates most are the figures who have passed through the cracks of history people like The fourteen year old boy who lived undetected in the chimneys of Buckingham Palace Archie Lee the re inventor of Santa Claus The women at Playtex who helped put the first man on the moon Unknown war hero Tommy Brown whose extraordinary bravery helped the code breakers of Bletchley But it s not just forgotten heroes that you ll meet this compendium also reveals the curious back stories behind everyday objects the humble fork the china cup the real history of tea and Queen Victoria s underwear to name but a few The Stuff of History is a thoughtful entertaining and carefully curated miscellany of fascinating forgotten histories from Antiques Roadshow stalwart and popular historian with a huge Instagram following Steven Moore

In these sparkling A to Zs, time-travelling historian Ian Mortimer visits four classic periods of English history: the fourteenth century, the Elizabethan age, the Restoration and the Regency.As he ranges from the Great Plague to the Great Freeze, from Armada to Austen, and from tobacco to toenails, he shines a light into corners of history we never knew were so fascinating or so revealing of the whole.How did the button change life in the Middle Ages? If you found yourself at a smart Elizabethan party, should you kiss your hostess on the lips? Why were pistols safer than swords in a duel? And how come Regency Londoners drank so much port?This is Mortimer at his accessible and witty best. As ever, his aim is not only to bring the past to life but also to illuminate our own times.

After the collapse of Soviet communism the West convinced itself that liberal democracy would be the dominant system of governance However in February 2022 Vladimir Putin proved it is unwise to make such predictions In the early years of Putin s presidency he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today an autocratic nationalist dedicated to repression at home and anti Western militarism abroad So what happened Was he lying when he proclaimed his support for freedom democracy and friendship with the West Or was he sincere Did he change his views at some stage between then and now And if that is the case what happened to change him Putin and the Return of History examines these questions in the context of Russia s thousand year past tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin s politics of aggression the enduring terror of encirclement by outsiders the subjugation of the individual to the cause of the state the collectivist values that allow the sacrifice of human lives in battle the willingness to lie and deceive the co opting of religion and the belief in Great Russia s mission to change the world

From the author of Dunkirk Fight to the Last Man and Enigma The Battle for the Code a deep dive into the Second World War s maritime epic in the Arctic In a reconfiguration of recent events in Ukraine it is 1941 and Russia has been invaded The terms of the new alliance were that Western nations would ship urgently needed war materials to Russia via the shortest but most dangerous route sailing north of the Arctic Circle while being hunted by U boats the Luftwaffe and a surface fleet spearheaded by Tirpitz and Scharnhorst This endeavour was called the Arctic convoys Battle of the Arctic is about the conflict and naval battles that unfolded while Allied naval and merchant seamen airmen submariners soldiers and intelligence officers delivered on this wartime commitment to Russia from 1941 45 passing through terrific storms snow ice and Arctic mirages When ships went down in seas so cold that a man could die after just five minutes of immersion it triggered events reminiscent of the do or die moments during the sinking of the Titanic As is shown in this description the aftermath of such incidents was harrowing Men perished one by one in lifeboats and as castaways on deserted Arctic islands where they were stalked by polar bears Frostbitten and wounde