1870 was a cultural Golden Age, but it was also the background for the Dreyfus Affair and the violence of the Commune. This panorama is shown through the eyes of the age's personalities.
The author of several good books on Russian imperial history turns her attention to the array of gifted exiles in Paris after the Revolution: Nijinsky, Diaghilev, Bunin, Chagall, Stravinsky,... read more
Born in Kenya, the author was two when the Mau Mau uprising began. A powerful memoir of this very difficult period and the end of empire in Kenya.The author worked for many years for the BBC... read more
How Mohammed-Reza Shah's close relationship with the US and his desire for autocratic rule sowed the seeds for the collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty and helped foment the Iranian revolution of... read more
Contacts and connections as the drivers of cultural change: the West was built on far more than the values of ancient Greece and Rome, as per the Victorian paradigm. Erudite and compelling.
From the author of the excellent 'The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are', an account of the dazzling city that was the hub of the known world in the C16th.