Ian F. W. Beckett's 3 favorite reads in 2025

The series of rebellions against royal authority and the violent clashes between aristocratic families that occurred in England between 1455 and 1487 have long been characterized as the 'Wars of the Roses'. Yet, far from being a continuous period of civil war, the Wars of the Roses were in fact an intermittent series of minor clashes, pitched battles, and sieges. These occurred against the backdrop of a demilitarization of the English aristocracy in the final years of the Hundred Years War.

Drawing on extensive archival research and a wide-ranging synthesis of the secondary literature, David Grummitt here reconsiders the nature… show more.

A new and heartbreaking history of World War II as told through the shocking experiences of zoos across the globe.

As Europe lurched into war in 1939, zookeepers started killing their animals. On September 1, as German forces invaded Poland, Warsaw began with its reptiles. Two days later, workers at the London Zoo launched a similar spree, dispatching six alligators, seven iguanas, sixteen southern anacondas, six Indian fruit bats, a fishing cat, a binturong, a Siberian tiger, five magpies, an Alexandrine parakeet, two bullfrogs, three lion cubs, a cheetah, four wolves, and a manatee over the next few months. Zoos… show more.

The eighteenth century saw more years of war than of peace. Though victimhood might jump most readily to mind when thinking about how this affected young people, it is only a small part of the picture. The Seven Years' War and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars influenced how children played, learned, worked, and perceived the world around them, regardless of whether they were in the heart of the battle or far from the action.

Childhood and War in Eighteenth-Century Britain considers how British and foreign youngsters affected the waging of war, not only as stalwart camp followers, boy soldiers, patriotic… show more.