New History Books for February 2024

Here is a selection of anticipated new history books that will be released over the month ahead.

The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium by Anthony Kaldellis

Oxford University Press, 1 February, 2024

As the long winter nights stretch on, some of you may be tempted to fill your time with a grand and immersive history. And few books can lay claim to such a description as Anthony Kaldellis's The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium.

Byzantium refers to the eastern part of the Roman Empire, which was centred on the city of Constantinople. Often overlooked by a popular culture that tends to train its focus on Rome, Byzantium's history is every bit as colourful and consequential. In this ambitious thousand-page epic, Kaldellis offers 'the most comprehensive history of the eastern Roman Empire to appear in over a generation.' Byzantium, Kaldellis, Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, argues, cannot be merely regarded as an oppressive realm. Instead, it was one filled with energy and intent.

The Killing Ground: A Biography of Thermopylae by Myke Cole & Michael Livingston

Osprey, 1 February, 2024

The single word 'Thermopylae' is enough to transport many readers of history back to the year 480 BC, when the Persians and the Spartans met in one of the grand contests in human history.

As authors Myke Cole and Michael Livingston show, however, in this intriguing new 'biography of a place', there have been many more battles in this very same place. Thermopylae lies in a pass of huge strategic value and, therefore, it has been a highly-coveted prize throughout the ages. Cole and Livington's The Killing Ground looks at twenty-seven distinct battles and holding actions, from the days of Xerxes to those of the Nazis in World War Two.

For readers of military history, this is an original and appealing book. It has both focus and great range.

A  History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins

Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 8 February, 2024

The writer David Gibbins does not confine his research to the library. Instead, he has exploited his abilities and experiences as a diver for many decades to explore the mysteries of the underwater world. One of the fruits of Gibbins's approach is this captivating new book, A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks.

Gibbins is keen to stress that it is 'A History of the World' rather than 'The History' and, as such, his choices of a dozen shipwrecks have a distinctly personal flavour. The book does, though, rove freely across the ages. He covers Bronze Age wrecks, King Henry's Mary Rose and HMS Terror from the tragic Franklin expedition. Such are the technological advances of our digital age that an extraordinary level of detail can be gleaned from these archaeological sites. The ships, as Gibbins shows, have become time capsules that give us an impression of life as it once was.

Rebel Island: The Incredible History of Taiwan by Jonathan Clements

Scribe, 8 February, 2024

If there is one part of the world that should be demanding our attention as 2024 begins, it is Taiwan. The hundred-mile strait that divides the island from the Chinese mainland is currently the focus of one of the great political disputes of our time. Recently President Xi Jinping of China has stated that total reunification is 'inevitable', while the Taiwanese people have just elected William Lai—a figure the Chinese Communist Party do not like one bit—as their new president. This story will continue to run.

As it does, readers with an interest in geography, politics and history can do little better than turning to Jonathan Clements's Rebel Island. This work introduces us to a much deeper understanding of Taiwan's cultural and economic development. A lost colony? Rebel province? Capitalist wonder? A place of myth and legend? All of these aspects are covered with great nimbleness and knowledge.

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Love and Marriage in the Age of Jane Austen by Rory Muir

Yale University Press, 14 February, 2024

If modern politics is making you feel uneasy, then an alternative would be a dive back into Britain's great Romantic Age. This is not the word 'romantic' in its current and watery sense, but it is the word in all of its vigorous majesty: in the poems of Byron and Shelley, the actions of Nelson and, in particular, the novels of Jane Austen.

Those glittering novels, in particular, have given the author Rory Muir a focus for this delightful new book. Questions of love and the business of marriage run richly through the pages of Austen's books. A great match, everyone knew, would combine both of the above, but seldom could the two things come together. Here Muir brings his focus onto a number of questions. How did the ladies and gentlemen experience love and marriage? What were the most pitfalls? How rigid were the rules? What awaited those who were tempted to stray? Animated by much original reading, here we see a colourful age in great colour.

The Wars of the Roses: The Medieval Art of Graham Turner by Graham Turner

Osprey, 15 February, 2024

The artist Graham Turner has built up a considerable reputation over the past three decades. Some know him best for his dramatic, highly-dynamic depictions of motorsport racing; compositions that capture the thrill of the early Grands Prix, and the glamour of figures like Sir Stirling Moss or Jim Clark.

From this world of gleaming paintwork and burning rubber, it might seem quite some distance to the battlefields of Bosworth or Hexham in the fifteenth century. But this age, best known as the Wars of the Roses, has become another of Turner's chief subjects. His paintings tend to frame decisive moments on or around the battlefields and they convey all the visual splendour of a chivalric age. In this book, Turner has collected together more than 120 paintings set in the era. It is a great visual feast, full of absorbing detail.

How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History by Josephine Quinn

Bloomsbury, 29 February, 2024

'The West' is one of the great contemporary themes in history publishing. What was it? Where did it come from? Did it do good or ill? Is it in the midst of decline or will it return resurgent?

It is with such questions in mind that readers will pick up Josephine Quinn's How the World Made the West. Quinn, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford, provides us with a broad and intriguing origin story of our modern world. Her narrative ranges across the centuries and from the Levant to India. Throughout she looks for significant moments of connection and transmission. Described by Rory Stewart as 'A work of great confidence, empathy, learning and imagination', it is a book that teaches us much more about who were are and the unexpected places that made us.

Rites of Passage: Death & Mourning in Victorian Britain by Judith Flanders

Picador, 29 February, 2024

Most people who know anything at all about Queen Victoria know that she spent much of the latter part of her life in mourning clothes, a dress that she adopted after the death of her husband, Albert.

One might wonder whether this was part of Victoria's personality, or whether it was a product of the distinct culture of her age. In this book, Rites of Passage, Judith Flanders provides a full, textured and engaging answer. The Victorians were known for their morbid fascination with death. This was something that could be found in all corners of society, from the novels of Dickens to the 'shilling shocker' accounts of infamous murders. As ever, the peculiar does not remain so for long when set in its social context. In Rites of Passage, Flanders transports readers back to a society 'plagued by infant death, poverty, disease, and unprecedented change'.

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