The First Islamic Empire – Its Decline and Fall
The Court of the Caliphs Hugh Kennedy Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2004 There were 37 Abbasid Caliphs, in a succession that lasted from 749 to 1258, when the last of them was rolled up in a carpet...
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The Cost of “Choice” Edited by Erika Bachiochi Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2004 This is a frankly partisan book, and though subtitled Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion, it would be fair to say...
View ArticleEast is East and West is West
From Babel to Dragomans Bernard Lewis Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2004 Two passages from this collection of essays catch the eye for quotation. The first is from the author himself, written in...
View ArticleFinest Hour, Last Gasp – or both?
The Duel John Lukacs Ticknor & Fields, New York 1994 Five Days in London: May 1940 John Lukacs Yale Univ. Press 1999 We buried Winston Churchill forty years ago. Sixty five years ago, come May, he...
View ArticleThe Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 – a romantic non-event?
The ’45 Christopher Duffy Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2003 Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart Frank McLynn Routlledge 1988 Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s campaign to regain the British throne...
View ArticleSpying in Greece during World War One
Gallipoli Memories Compton Mackenzie Cassell, London, 1929 First Athenian Memories Compton Mackenzie Cassell, London, 1931 Greek Memories Compton Mackenzie Chatto & Windus, 1932 Aegean Memories...
View ArticleHow Johnson did it in 42,773 words
Dr Johnson’s Dictionary Henry Hitchings John Murray 2005 The fifteenth of April marked the 250th anniversary of the publication of Johnson’s Dictionary, the making of which Hitchings has subtitled The...
View ArticleBragging about English
The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language Melvyn Bragg Sceptre 2004 A History of the English Language Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable Routledge & Kegan Paul 1951, revised 1978. It is...
View ArticleThe Light of Asia into western eyes
The Buddha and the Sahibs Charles Allen John Murray Publishing, 2003 It came as something of a surprise to me that so much that is now known about the Buddha (the “Wise One”, not an exclusive title in...
View ArticleAn odd (but loving) couple
The Architect and His Wife: A Life of Edwin Lutyens Jane Ridley Chatto & Windus, 2002 The great grand-daughter of the architect (“Ned” to all) and his wife (Lady Emily Lutyens, nee Lytton) has set...
View ArticleA radical sect in Islam: 1090-1273
The Assassins Bernard Lewis Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1967 (reissued 2001, with new preface) Who they were and who they were not: their long lineage Perhaps it would be best to start by saying what the...
View ArticleTrafalgar – and after
Men of Honour: Trafalgar and the Making of the English Hero Adam Nicolson HarperCollins, 2005 The Campaign of Trafalgar Julian S. Corbett Trafalgar Square Publishing, 2005 Admiral Collingwood, Nelson’s...
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