84 WORDS PAUL BLOOMFIELD & MATT ELTON
Strange Antics:
A History of
Seduction
by Clement Knox
William Collins,
out now
Have 21st-century
developments
such as online
dating and the
#MeToo movement
forever altered the politics of seduction?
This history of desire and courtship puts
things in perspective, roaming from the
Garden of Eden to Jupiter’s moons in its
bid to understand the pursuit of intimacy.Land of Tears: The
Exploration and
Exploitation of
Equatorial Africa
by Robert Harms
Basic Books,
out now
Starting in the
late 19th century,
the full force of
global demand
for resources – ivory, rubber, enslaved
people – was brought to bear upon the
communities of the Congo Basin. This
sobering book documents the devastation
wreaked as this demand was met here.Dresden: The Fire
and the Darkness
by Sinclair McKay
Viking, out now
Seventy-five years
ago, in the Second
World War, the
Allies unleashed
a ferocious bomb-
ing campaign on
the German city
of Dresden, killing an estimated 25,000
people. This account draws on previously
untapped sources to chronicle the horror
of the events of Febr uar y 194 5 as experi-
enced by people on the ground.The Great
Imperial
Hangover
by Samir Puri
Atlantic, April
We may live in
a world without
empires as they
were once known,
but their influence
is still felt. Here,
international relations expert Samir Puri
looks at the ways in which the imperial
past informs the present, from India
and Russia to the United States.The Beauty
and the Terror
by Catherine
Fletcher
Bodley Head, March
Think you know
all there is to know
about the Italian
Renaissance?
Think again. That’s
the message at the
heart of Catherine Fletcher’s new history
of the period, which both complicates the
familiar narrative and reintroduces
figures often left out of its telling.Tower of Skulls:
A History of
the Asia-Pacific
War, Volume One
by Richard
B Frank
WW Norton, April
This weighty book- first of a trilogy
- examines how
the Second World
War played out in China, Singapore, the
Philippines and Burma. Spanning military,
social and political spheres, it’s a valuable
corrective to western-skewed accounts.
The Exclusionary
West: Medieval
Minorities and
the Making of
Modern Europe
by Ariel Salzmann
Hurst, June
Following the roots
of present-day
anti-Semitism
and Islamaphobia
back to the medieval world and beyond,
this scholarly book investigates how
ideas of exclusion and identity became
intrinsically bound up with the foundation
of the nation state.Valkyrie: The
Women of the
Viking World
by Jóhanna Katrín
Friðriksdóttir
Bloomsbury, April
Named after the
female figures of
Norse mythology
who were believed
to decide who died
in battle, this look at the role of women in
Viking culture is set very much in the real
world of medieval Iceland. A specialist in
literature and manuscripts, Friðriksdót-
tir’s work draws on the latest research.Royals and Rebels:
The Rise and Fall
of the Sikh Empire
by Priya Atwal
Hurst, June
Among the figures
nominated in last
issue’s poll of the
greatest leader in
world history, Sikh
ruler Ranjit Singh
presided over an empire of prosperit y and
tolerance. The factors behind his success,
and the ways in which his kingdom altered
India forever, are considered in this
insightful new volume.Nine books for spring
Charting the rise and fall of nations, empires and
cultural movements, this season’s top books offer
suitably epic takes on key moments in history