Oxford University by Alice Blackford Millea is fascinating. It has 52 stories from the archives of Oxford, which spans over 800 years. Even though the archives were established at the same time with the Bodleian, in 1634, there area documents that precede this period and…
Liverpool by Peter Aughton – A People’s History – was a book I borrowed for an essay and ended up keeping it so I could read it cover to cover. It is a very good book and I think it would appeal to a wider…
The Brunels by Anthony Burton – father and son – is a good book. It covers a bit of their personal lives and more in depth their professional life. I wish there was a bit more about the interactions between them, thus I gave the…
Mortal Monarchs by Suzie Edge – 1000 Years of Royal Deaths – was such a disappointment. I only gave it 1 star! The book is about how the monarchs died, written by a medical historian. Her background as a medical doctor made me very excited.…
The University of Oxford by Laurence Brockliss – A Brief History is a short, less than 150 pages book with lots of pictures. He also wrote a history that has 871 pages, which must be very interesting indeed. This brief history is so well written,…
A Dark History of Gin by Mike Rendell* is a great book, a fantastic addition to the Dark History series by Pen & Sword. I think this one is one of the best in the series if not the best. It covers a wide range…
A History of Women in Medicine and Medical Research by Dale DeBakcsy* – Exploring the Trailblazers of STEM – is a must read book, without any doubt. It is really well researched, the biographies of those fascinating women are described in a few pages, offering…
The History of the London Underground Map by Caroline Roope* is a good book, it covers both the history of the map and some of the history of the building of the tube too. I wanted to read this book because I love the tube’s…
How the Black Death Gave Us the NHS by Jaime Breitnauer* caught my eyes because I thought it will be relevant for my studies next year. It was not, but it was a very interesting book and I’m glad I’ve read it. Despite its name,…
Liverpool: A Landscape History by Martin Greaney is a good book on the history of Liverpool. It’s a short book and because it was an e-book I’ve decided to put the picture of the cover over a Panorama of Liverpool I took a few years…
The first question regarding 100 Letters That Changed the World by Colin Salter might be why I finished it when I gave it only 1 star? Because I was curious what he selected as primary sources. The book is so badly written that I wouldn’t…
The Industrial Revolution by Robert Allen is from Oxford’s A Very Short Introduction series. It is a short book, but with plenty of interesting details that would keep the reader engaged. I am very keen on this series and I will buy a few more…
A Railway History of New Shildon by George Turner Smith* – From George Stephenson to the Present Day – was the perfect book to take with me on my trip to up north. Why? Because on the 27th September 1825 the first public railway steam…
History, Memory and Public Life by Adam Sutcliffe, alongside with two other editors, Anna Katharina Maerker and Simon Sleight. Each chapter is written by another author expert in the topic, so it is a fascinating book because there are short chapters, of less than 30…
The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by John Pickard* is a fantastic book. The description of the book mentions that this is “a book by a non-believer for other non-believers, and it will be a revelatory read, even to those already of an atheist,…
A Short History of War by Jeremy Black is a very short history of warfare. I like how the book started, with the origins of conflict and looks at both conflict between humans and humans and other animals. It was an unexpected way to look…