The Cambridge World History of Slavery, Volume 3: AD 1420-AD 1804 by David Eltis and Stanley L. Engerman (editors) (Cambridge University Press), 2011 762pp., £110 hard, ISBN 978-0-521-84068-2 This is the second of the four volume in The Cambridge World History of Slavery to be published and will attract a considerable...

The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval Scotland, George and Isabel Henderson, (Thames & Hudson, London 2011) 256pp., paperback, £28.00 ISBN 978 0 500 289 63 1 (first published in hardback, 2004)George Henderson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Art at the University of Cambridge, and Isobel Henderson,...

Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland, Brent Miles (D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 2011) x, 272pp., hardback, £60.00 ISBN 978 1 84384 264 4This is volume XXX in the major series Studies in Celtic History.  Brent Miles, Fellow in Early and Medieval Irish at University College, Cork, breaks new...

England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot &‘The Discovery of Witchcraft' Philip C. Almond (I B Tauris, London and New York, 2011) 246pp., hardback, £54.50 ISBN 978 1 84885 793 3Philip Almond of the University of Queensland here adds a ninth innovative study to his previously acclaimed works.  This is the first...

Renaissance People: Lives that shaped the Modern Age, Robert C Davis and Beth Lindsmith (Thames and Hudson, London, 2011) 336pp., hardback, £24.95 ISBN 978 0 500 251775 Robert C. Davis is Professor of Renaissance history at Ohio State University and Beth Lindsmith a colleague.  This book offers a survey of...

The Constitutional Origins of the American Revolution by Jack P. Greene(Cambridge University Press), 2010 198pp., £15.99, paper, ISBN 978-0-521-13230-5Jack P. Greene has written a succinct study arguing that the establishment of overseas settlements in America created a problem of constitutional organisation. Central to this issue was how far conflicting understandings...

The Wine Trade in Medieval Europe 1000-1500, Susan Rose, (Continuum, London and New York, 2011) xviii, 197pp., hardback, £65.00 ISBN 978 0 8264 2584 3This book explains both how and why wine became so widely traded but also its importance in medieval life.  The revenue from the charges and taxes...

Travel and Religion in Antiquity, Philip A. Harland (Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion, Wilfrid Laurier University Press,) xii, 289pp., hardback, £70.99, ISBN 978 1 55458 222 8 This is the 21st volume in the Studies in Christianity and Judaism series.  Philip Harland is an associate professor in humanities and...

Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader by Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel(Frontline Books), 2011442pp., £17.99, paper, ISBN 978-1-84832-600-2A decorated First World War ‘ace', president of the Reichstag, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe and Hitler's designated successor, Herman Goering was one of most capable and sinister leading figures...

David Paterson. 2011, Troubador Publishing, £12.95.Histories of old established schools are often very interesting and this book is certainly no exception. The author taught history at King Edward's, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, for over thirty years and has only recently retired from there. He, therefore, knows his subject very well and he...

Vanishing London, Paul Joseph, Haynes Publishing Ltd, 2011, hardback, 256p, ISBN 978-0-857330-38-3, £25-00.This book is richly illustrated with a very substantial selection by Paul Joseph of photographs from the Mirrorpix photographic archive. The contents are arranged in themes - public buildings and spaces; trade and industry; entertainment, leisure and sport;...

In the Age of Averroes; Arabic Philosophy in the Sixth / Twelfth Century, edited by Peter Adamson (Warburg Institute, University of London and Turin, 2011) softback, 288pp., £60.00, ISBN 978 0 85481 154 0This colloquium is in the series published by the Warburg Institute at London and Nino Aragno Editore...

Lotteries in Colonial America, Neal E. Milliken, (Routledge, New York and Abingdon, 2011) hardback, xiii, 124pp., £80.00, ISBN 978 0 415 88656 7This is an addition to the series Studies in American Popular History and Culture, with eight black and white illustrations.Customarily winners of lotteries sharer their ill-gotten gains with...

The Making of the East London Mosque, 1910-1951 Minutes of the London Mosque Fund and East London Mosque, edited by Humayun Ansari (Camden Fifth Series, volume 38, Cambridge University Press, for the Royal Society, 2011) hardback, ix, 350pp., ISBN 978 1 107 01492 3The concept of the East London Mosque...

Reinventing History: The Enlightenment Origins of Ancient History, edited by James Moore, Ian Macgregor Morris and Andrew J. Bayliss (Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 2008) hardback, xi, 312pp., £18.00, ISBN 978 1 905165 37 7This book is a collection of essays by nine scholars...

The Black Legend of Prince Rupert's Dog; Witchcraft and Propaganda during the English Civil War, Mark Stoyle, (University of Exeter Press, 2011) hardback, xiv, 240pp., £45.00, ISBN 978 0 85989 859 1Mark Stoyle, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Southampton, has published widely on the English Civil...

Silent Killers: Submarines and Underwater WarfareJames Delgado, Osprey Publishing, June 2011.ISBN: 978-1849083652.James P. Delgado is an expert in underwater archaeology as well as marine history. In a detailed and well-illustrated book, Delgado traces the history of submarines from their humble beginnings to the position now, where they are a most...

They Shall Not Pass: The British Battalion at Jarama, Ben Hughes, Osprey, 2011, 272p, ISBN 978-1-84908-549-6, £20-00.In one respect this is largely an account of a four-day engagement in the early days of the Spanish Civil War and which involved British volunteers from the International Brigade. Ben Hughes brings alive...

The Sahara: A Cultural History, Eamonn Gearon, Signal Books, 2011, 264p, ISBN 978-1-904955-82-5, £12-00.Eamonn Gearon has basically taken the whole of North Africa as his focus and yet this reads like the best of regional histories. Fortunately the text is supported by a very helpful map, to which I had...

From Colony to Superpower - U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776, George Herring, Oxford University Press, 2011, 1030 pp., ISBN 9780199765539, £14.99An excellent study of a work that first appeared in hardback in 2008, this is the sole topical volume in the Oxford history of the United States. It effectively offers...