WORDS MATT ELTON 85
A History of Islam
in 21 Women
by Hossein Kamaly
Oneworld,
September
This collection of
biographies offers
an introduction to
21 key women in
Islamic history.
From the first
follower of Muhammad to architects,
teachers and politicians, Kamaly gathers
a diverse cast: as the author notes, it’s a
selection that you’d be unlikely to see in
a more traditional history of Islam.Learning from
the Germans
by Susan Neiman
Allen Lane, August
Wrestling with
the ways in which
thorny legacies of
the past – racism,
fascism, colonial-
ism – intrude upon
the present, this
is a philosophical and personal study of
how to tackle historical responsibility and
guilt. Ranging from Nazi Germany to the
A merican South, it exper tly walks the line
between history and current affairs.The Europeans
by Orlando Figes
Allen Lane,
September
Singer Pauline
Viardot, writer and
critic Louis Viardot,
novelist Ivan
Turgenev: these
three 19th-century
figures may not be
household names today, yet this new joint
profile makes the case that they are key
figures in a European artistic canon.
Figes offers a vivid account of their lives,
loves and the circles in which they moved.Post Wall,
Post Square
by Kristina Spohr
William Collins,
October
Thirty years ago,
the Berlin Wall
fell – and Europe
changed forever.
A s well as focusing
on the role of
international leaders in shaping the new
world order, Spohr also looks at popular
pro-democracy uprisings – including in
China, where they were brutally quashed.Great State: China
and the World
by Timothy Brook
Profile, September
The author of the
award-winning
Vermeer’s Hat
(2007) charts the
history of China’s
international
relationships in an
epic tale featuring emperors, traders, im-
perialists and invaders. It’s a timely tome,
in light of current western concerns about
the Asian nation’s continuing rise.The Boundless
Sea
by David Abulafia
Allen Lane, October
After traversing
the Mediterranean
in The Great Sea
(2011), Abulafia
now voyages
through the Indian,
Atlantic and Pacific
oceans. Aptly, given their vast geographi-
cal expanses, this is a major work (more
than 1,000 pages) yet the author plots his
course through the centuries with skill.The Gravediggers
by Hauke
Friederichs and
Rüdiger Barth
Profile, November
Hindsight can be
a dangerous thing:
we now know only
too well what lay in
store for Germany
after the winter of- But was the rise of Nazism inevita-
ble? And who were the figures vying for
control? This day-by-day account of the
last weeks of the Weimar Republic plung-
es into an era of rapid, terrifying change.
Leadership in War
by Andrew Roberts
Viking, October
What links Nelson,
Stalin, Hitler and
Thatcher? They all,
Andrew Roberts
argues, decisively
determined the
outcomes of wars
fought when they
were in power. By drawing parallels
between these and five other leaders
of the western world, Roberts sets out
to define the traits and techniques that
make a successful military leader.The Coolie’s
Great War
by Radhika Singha
C Hurst, December
The First World
War wasn’t won
only by soldiers.
This new book
foregrounds the
role of ‘coolies’,
non-combatant
members of the Indian army whose
roles included porters and construction
workers. Imperial attitudes meant that
such contributors were viewed as inferior- a status they increasingly challenged.
Nine books for autumn
The coming season reliably yields a bumper
harvest of history books. These are some of the
top titles to look out for in the next few months